How to Screw Yourself Over
by Eclairs and Flower Crowns
Summary: Step #1: Get a philosopher's stone. Step #2: Make a deal with what you think is a dream god. Congratulations, you're now stuck in a world where alchemy exists and you shouldn't! This tutorial is not responsible for any headaches, nausea, bleeding, exhaustion, homesickness, stupid decisions, death, loss of limbs, loss of sanity, or loss of will to live. Enjoy your stay!
1. How to Regret Your Decisions

I have no idea what to do.

Here I am, sitting on a stool, all alone, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm stuck in some sort of lucid dream that I have no control over, and I need to get out of it. It's been way too long since I left home and I'm getting sick and tired of it all. I have to try to come up with a plan... Maybe it's a good idea to start from the beginning and work from there, as painful as it sounds. I need to figure out how to wake up, and soon. I don't want to be stuck here.

* * *

: Weeks earlier :

* * *

 _"_ _You can open your eyes now, Cam."_

 _I opened them. In front of me on the table in the now darkened room was a chocolate cake with strawberries, illuminated with fourteen candles._

 _"_ _Happy Birthday, Campbell! Make a wish!" Everyone else in the room, Dad and Riley and Lauren, was smiling, each holding a pleasantly wrapped box in their hands._

 _After blowing out the candles, turning the lights back on and eating some (oh-so-delicious) cake, it was finally time to open some gifts. Lauren, always the crafty one, got me a box of fake flower crowns, which were very much appreciated since they would never go bad unlike the real ones they'd all make together. Riley's box held an assortment of candy and macaroons, along with some cash. I was happy to know that my friends knew me well enough to know what I liked. And now it was Dad's turn to have his gift opened._

 _I was handed a really small, rectangular box, and I couldn't help but frown as I silently anticipated that this was going to be another case of 'here's-the-fake-present-and-I-wont-give-you-the-real-one-until-you-open-this-one'. Last year, I almost got murdered by one of those peanut brittle cans that shoot a long snake at you when you open them._

 _"_ _Go ahead," Dad said, excitement lacing their voice. "Open it."_

 _Taking in a deep breath, I picked up the lid of the box slowly, bracing for any in-your-face surprises, and softly gasped. Whatever I had been expecting, it certainly wasn't a necklace with an enchanting crimson red crystal._

 _"_ _...How?" Dad's business hadn't been doing so great over the past few months, and so not a lot of money had been coming in, even with me working a summer job as a cashier. For him to have gotten his hands on a necklace this expensive looking..._

 _He simply smiled at my concern. "It doesn't matter. You're important, Cam, and I want you to have good things."_

 _That didn't help ease my distress in the slightest, but decided to accept the gift anyway. It was already bought, and I was sure that he already trashed or burned the receipt anyway. Dad took the necklace out of the box and put it around my neck._

 _"_ _Go look in the mirror real quick, if you don't mind," he said._

 _Lauren jumped. "Put on a flower crown, too! I wanna see how it looks on you!"_

 _"_ _Yes, yes, I'm going," I said after picking up a flower crown and walking over to the mirror in the living room as the others followed suit. My short brunette hair was currently harmonizing with the different colors of the fake flowers. The red from the crystal contrasted vividly against my brown skin._

 _"_ _So, how is it?" Dad asked._

 _"_ _That crown and necklace look so good on you," Lauren blurted out. I think I heard Riley mumbling to himself about outfits and jewelry._

 _"_ _It's—" I was interrupted by an incoming yawn on my part. "I really like it. Thank you guys so much."_

 _Lauren looked confused. "You're already tired? It's not even ten yet!"_

 _I glared halfheartedly. "Well, unlike a certain someone, I don't stay up into three in the morning every night watching crafting tutorials and Supernatural."_

 _"_ _In my defense," Lauren started, "I don't have time to catch up on my shows during the day with my music lessons and my projects and everything in between."_

 _"_ _Whatever you say." I looked at both Lauren and Riley. "I'm sorry, but I think that I'm going to be the first to go to bed tonight. See you guys tomorrow?"_

 _Riley gave a simple nod while Lauren gave an enthusiastic thumbs up._

 _Smiling, I gave everyone a quick hug before turning to walk over to the staircase, up and into my room. It was only when I closed the door that I noticed that the necklace Dad gave me was giving off a small, soft glow in the dark room. I wonder what type of crystal this is..._

 _I jumped into bed without bothering to change. Today had been exhausting, and the bed was too comfy to keep away from right now._

* * *

: Yesterday :

* * *

 _"_ _You stink at video games, Riley."_

 _"_ _Hey! I can still murder you in chess!"_

 _"_ _Chess is irrelevant right now. Watch your head."_

 _Just then, I pumped a bullet through his virtual skull, and the game ended. Riley groaned in complaint, while I did a little victory dance, twirling the flower crown around my finger. "Six wins in a row! You really need to step up your game."_

"Bite me," _he said, but there was playful smirk on his face._

 _Just then, the home phone rang in the kitchen. "Maybe it's Dad saying he'll be home late?" We both got up and walked over to the phone. Riley, always the competitive one, picked it up before I could. I started humming as Riley talked on the phone. His smile was quickly erased and taken over by a small frown. Then he looked confused. His expression slowly morphed into surprise and stayed that way until he hung up not too long after._

 _"_ _Who was on the phone?"_

 _Riley looked extremely uneasy and really sad. He averted his eyes and didn't say anything._

 _"_ _...Did something bad happen?" I was starting to worry. I haven't seen him look this upset in a long time. When he's upset, it's always for a good reason._

 _Silence._

 _"_ _Come on, what is it? What's wrong?" My voice sounded panicky. I put my hand on his shoulder. "What did they say?"_

 _He still didn't say anything, so I decided that it was best for him to get his thoughts collected and let him tell me when he was ready. That doesn't mean that I didn't worry for the entire duration, but I was patient. Eventually, he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, and I had to strain my ears to understand._

 _"_ _...It was the police. Your dad's in the hospital."_

* * *

 _After sitting in the big waiting room of the hospital with Riley and his mom for what felt like an eternity, a doctor came out of a door, clipboard in hand and a stern expression plastered on._

 _"_ _Family of Isaac Shirvan?"_

 _I stood up and glanced at Riley, and he shot me a weary smile before we began walking towards the doctor, who motioned us into the hallway. He started talking as soon as the door closed behind us._

 _"_ _Are you Mrs. Shirvan?"_

 _Riley's mom shook her head. "No, I'm just a friend of his. This is my son"—she put an arm around Riley—"and this is Isaac's daughter."_

 _The doctor looked at me, his serious look turning into a more sympathetic one, before looking at this clipboard._

 _"_ _The car accident that Mr. Isaac Shirvan was in caused traumatic injury to his brain. The car had a defective airbag that didn't inflate when the car got hit. After giving Mr. Shirvan treatment for his injuries, we conducted a couple of scans and tested his response levels. We found damage is some of the pathways to his brain, and he has been completely unresponsive." He paused slightly, seeming to be a bit uncomfortable. "The majority of people in his situation either die or remain in a veg—"_

 _...I'm not sure about what happened after that, but I woke up to see Riley's mom give out a heavy sigh of relief. She started explaining how I oh-so-heroically fainted after I gave her a confused glance. It wasn't until I looked at the bed behind her that I understood why._

 _There he was, lying in bed, connected to so many different machines. For a striking moment, my heart stopped as I filled with the dreadful fear that he was dead, but the soft rise and fall of his chest let me release a breath that I didn't realize I was holding until then. Still, I could feel my eyes start to sting and my chest wrench._

 _I got up from the chair, moved it to the side of the bed, and sat down without taking my eyes off of him, as if he'd fade away if I ever did. His head looked like a mess, stitched up and everything, and he donned multiple wounds all over his body. Squeezing his hand, I sat there and cried for who knows how long as Riley tried to comfort me with a hug. My father was in a coma. My father was dying. He was dying._

* * *

 _Curling up in the guest room bed of Riley's house, I lied there, holding the flower crown to my chest. This couldn't be happening. This isn't real. This isn't what is supposed to be happening. Why is this happening? I feel so sick and lost and alone. I don't have any other blood family that I know of except for Dad. Where am I going to go?_

 _My phone read 4:37 AM. I brought a hand up to pull on the red crystal. This was the last gift he gave me. If he died, this would be my last memento of him._

 _Dad was going to die._

 _Mind foggy and desperate, I sluggishly sat up onto my knees, put the crown on my head and put my hands in front of me in a prayer to any god out there who may or may not exist. To hell with my pride. If there was a wishing fountain around, I'd dump all of my coins in it, even though I know that it would do nothing but be a waste of spare change. Right now, all I wanted to do was get away. I wanted to get away from everything here and just be able to take my mind off of it all for a while. And that's what I was wishing for. Because staying here was too much, and no god out there would agree to magically heal my dad if they didn't do that for others. I decided to just ask for something small._

 _When I was done with that, I ended it all by slamming my hands into the bed and bowing my head to the empty room, closing my eyes and thinking about how stupid this all was. Why would a god grant a pathetic wish like this? Why aren't I wishing for something like world peace?_

 _My eyes opened, and I immediately noticed there were red shots of what looked like electricity flying across my hands and around my necklace._

 _Before I could even make a sound, I blinked and the environment around me changed drastically. It was all white. Over me, under me, at all sides of me. How was I even standing? Where was I? How did I get here? Did I pass out again?_

 _I stood there for I'm not sure how long before I noticed a weird figure. I could easily see the outline of their head, torso, arms, legs, and mouth, but nothing else was defined. They were sitting in a nonchalant manner, I think, and I saw how their mouth was moving. How long has their mouth been moving for?_

 _"—_ _still confused. Where are you from? How do you have that stone?"_

 _...Okay, it's either I've gone insane or this is a really vivid dream. This is still really freaky either way. There's this nagging in the back of my mind, saying,_ 'This is familiar. You should know where you are. You remember this' _. It was annoying. Of course I don't know where I am! Why would I?_

 _"_ _Um..." Wow, Cam, what a smart thing to say. "Are you a god? Or goddess?"_

 _The figure sighed and shook their head. "If that's what you want to call me, whatever. Where did you come from?"_

 _"_ _Um, I was in my friend's house, and my necklace started acting all funny," I stuttered out weakly. There's a god. Or goddess. I'll just use 'god'. There's actually a god. Gods exist. Or is there just one? Is this god nice? Are they merciful? This all could very well just be my first lucid dream. I shut my eyes and silently tried to will the scene around me to my birthday party, where Dad was healthy and everyone was happy and there wasn't a single thing worry in the world._

 _..._

 _..._

 _...Dang. That didn't work._

 _The god (or just God?) was quiet for a moment, frowning the whole time. "If I don't know who you are, then you're not from this world, are you? I'm still not sure how you got your hands on a stone then, but I digress. Hand me the stone and leave. There's a gate right behind you."_

 _What? I turned around, and there were two grey doors that definitely weren't there before. They were both_ huge, _and they had some strange writing on them. I eventually processed what God had said._

 _Home?_

 _"_ _Please don't send me home..." I didn't want to wake up yet. I didn't want to have to face the reality just yet that Dad was probably going to die, and I would have to either go live with a blood relative whom I'd never met before or become an orphan and face the chance of never being adopted or being adopted by horrible caretakers. Either way was horrible, and I didn't want to think about it anymore._

 _God gave a wide, toothy grin, and I involuntarily shuddered._

 _"_ _Is that so? I could keep you here if that's what you want, but you'd still have to give up the stone."_

 _"_ _My necklace?" I reached behind my neck with shaky hands and unclasped the chain, putting it all into my palm and staring at the red quartz. Why would this dream god be interested in something like this?_

 _"_ _Are you going to go back to your own world? Or stay here in this one?"_

 _Even now, the thoughts in the back of my head that were telling me that this should be familiar were confusing the heck out of me, but I didn't have the time to figure out why my brain was telling me this. Right now, I had to make a decision._

 _A very easy decision, nonetheless._

 _"_ _I'm staying," I said. I don't want this dream to end just yet._

 _God grinned even wider, which I didn't think was possible until now. They got up and walked towards me casually. I actually ended up taking a few steps backward, startled by the silhouette of a being closing in on me until they stopped a few feet away and reached their hand out._

 _Hesitantly, I put the crystal and chain into their palm and waited for something to happen._

 _"_ _Have fun."_

 _Abruptly, I felt something gripping onto my arm. I looked down to see a_ small, black hand _was grabbing me, trying to yank me backward. More and more grabbed my skin and clothing, pulling._

 _"_ _What's going on? Stop!" I turned around to see that the gate was open, and there was a giant silver eye staring at me from within as the hands dragged me closer and closer towards it. I thrashed and kicked and reached out, but God just stood there, watching, grinning that ever-so-big grin of his. I decided right then and there that this god was not a merciful one._

 _The gate closed._

* * *

: Half an Hour Ago :

* * *

 _I woke up with a start. My back ached as I sat up and realized that I had been sleeping on concrete. But why—?_

 _Oh, right. Coma. Dream god. Necklace. Gate._

 _I took a deep breath to calm myself down and just stayed there for some time before I decided that it was collected enough to get up to see that I was in an alleyway. Lovely; I must look like some kind of street rat. Walking out of the alley, I scanned the area around me. It looked like the sun going to rise soon (or set, for all I knew), and there were a lot fancy looking buildings around with weird metal chimneys or something. There were also a lot of people walking around, talking to each other._

 _Great. I have no clue as to where I am. I could always just ask someone where I am, though, right?_

 _As I walked around, I noticed how beautiful everything was. By the looks of it, everyone seemed to be really nice and friendly, and the city was just gorgeous. But I easily got lost, and I didn't know where I was, and I was pretty sure that this is the third time I've passed that lamp post. And the whole time, I was trying to figure out how to wake myself up from this stupid dream. None of my ideas worked. With time, I was able to find an outdoor bar with a stool to sit on. Oh, glorious goddess above, how I thank thee for your mercy._

* * *

And here we are. It didn't really help much, other than bringing a bunch of questions to mind that I knew probably won't get answered anytime soon. Well, most of the questions anyway. I can answer one of the questions right now. "Hey, Cam, why did you decide to make a deal with a dream god?" Because I'm an idiot. I didn't think that I'd actually get stuck here! I thought it just meant that I would be forced to wake up earlier than I wanted to!

"Are you a traveler?"

I looked up to the person behind the bar. A cute girl was dark skin and pink bangs.

"Yeah, something like that," I responded. "Where are we?"

She flashed me a smile. "You're in Liore right now. Where did you come from?"

Again, alarms went off in my head. _'This is familiar. You should know where you are. You recognize her.'_

"Uh," I said, not really having a story made up yet, "I'm not from this country. I came here a few days ago, and now I'm a little lost."

The girl frowned before going back into the kitchen area and coming back with a bowl of stew.

"I thought you might be hungry, so I brought you some food to keep your energy up!"

My stomach growled as I realized how hungry I was. I was about to start eating, but I paused before taking a bite. "I don't have any money."

She casually waved it off. "It's fine. Just eat; you look tired."

I smiled gratefully and dug in. Mid-way through the bowl, I thought it would be polite to ask for a name. "I should at least know the name of my noble savior, right?"

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself! My name's Rosé."

 _Click._

The red crystal. The weird god-like being. The gate. The black hands. The silver eye. Weird buildings. Pink bangs. Liore. Stew. Rosé.

 _Amestris._

This is _Amestris._

I am in _Amestris._

I am currently having a conversation with a fictional character from _freaking Amestris._

When I got out of my stupor and realized Rosé was giving me a concerned look, I shook my head and grinned. "Sorry. I got lost in thought. My name's Campbell."

"Campbell?" she relayed. "That's a weird name. Where were you born?"

Shoot, shoot, shoot. Don't give me engaging questions while I'm in the middle of a crisis! What's the name of a country near Amestris?

"Uh, I was born in Table City, Creta," I said, holding back a nervous laugh.

"Table City? Then it's no wonder why your Amestrian is so perfect. But isn't that all the way on the other side of the country?"

 _Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap._ "I, um, left there a long while ago, so I didn't really come here straight from Creta."

A wave of understanding washed over her profile. "Oh, I get it!"

I gave a heavy sigh of relief and continued eating. This situation is so messed up. When I was done, Rosé took the bowl away and I was about to start thinking about _how impossible this all is_ but she came back and started talking to me again.

"You don't have any money, right? Where are you planning on staying tonight? Or are you leaving town?"

I grimaced. "I'm too tired to travel any more today. I think I'll just go find a nice, warm alley to sleep in tonight."

"You can't do that!" she said. "Sleeping outside on concrete isn't good for you, but I don't have any room in my apartment..."

"Really," I reassured, "it's fine. I've slept outside before. I could just find a nice patch of grass somewhere then. I'm sure it won't be too hard."

"I'm not going to allow you to catch a cold while sleeping outside on grass!" Rosé said persistently, and was silent for a bit. Soon after, her face lit up. "I could ask High Priest Cornello if you could stay at the church for the night. I'm sure that he will not turn away a person in need!"

Oh, I had forgotten all about Cornello, the sly son-of-a-dog. Which got me thinking...

"I've never heard about this religion before, and it seems like everyone here is really devoted to this priest of yours. Do you mind teaching me some about this religion while I'm staying here?"

Rosé smiled widely and nodded. "Of course! I have tomorrow off of work, and Father Cornello will always accept and save those willing to convert any time!"

And so I waited for her to clean up the kitchen and we both made our way to the giant temple that is the shrine of the all-powerful sun god Leto. She went ahead to ask if I could stay and came back to lead me to a guest room of sorts, telling me before she left that she could come by with spare clothes tomorrow to see if they fit. Rosé finally left, and I was alone, just me and my thoughts.

Alrighty then. FMA. Not what I was expecting. This is most definitely a dream. But I'm lucid, right? Shouldn't I at least be able to wake myself up? How long do lucid dreams last? Can I sleep within a dream?

I saw a clock on the wall in front of the bed and remembered Lauren, Ms. I-have-a-lucid-dream-every-night, telling me once that in dreams, it's either hard to read a clock or the hour changes every time you look at it.

8:53.

I looked away for a few seconds before turning my head back.

8:54.

...Does that count?

I look away one more time and looked again.

8:54.

...

...This isn't working. I'm not about to call Lauren a liar, but this should definitely be working. So why isn't it working?

Jumping into bed, I decided one again that I needed to figure out a way to wake up. Thinking back on it, I "woke up" in Liore because I gave Truth a philosopher's stone. In that sense, it should be possible for me to give them another one so that I can wake up, right? The thought of returning home to see Dad dead twisted my stomach. Is it really a good idea to be trying to—?

I stopped myself. Of course it is. What if I'm sleeping right now, and Riley and Lauren are worried sick about me back home because I'm not waking up? I can't just abandon my friends!

...Doesn't that mean that I'm in a coma right now? Ugh, I didn't ask for a headache.

But it's easy to talk about getting a philosopher's stone. How in the world was I going to get one? Cornello's stone is going to break once the Elrics' come, and even if I did manage to salvage it before it broke, it might be too weak to offer to Truth. I'd have to get the stone another way, all while trying to make some money so that I don't starve and trying not to die by letting any homunculi get curious about me. I'm not sure what'll happen if I die within a dream, and I'm pretty sure nothing much will happen, but I don't want to risk anything, as silly as it sounds. And if I can feel exhaustion and hunger, then I'm almost positive that I should also be able to feel pain, right?

Oh dear goddess, how am I going to get out of here!?

* * *

A/N: So. I know that there are a lot of these kinds of stories out there, but you know what? I'm writing this story anyway.

How was it? Good? Bad? Amazing? Utter trash? Criticism and compliments are always welcome.

I'll continue this if it gets popular enough, I guess.


	2. How to Evade Death

Chapter 2: How to Evade Death

* * *

 _Knock knock knock!_

I groaned loudly into my pillow. Why is Dad trying to wake me up so early in the morning? Why would _anyone_ be awake at such an ungoddessly hour?

"Campbell? Are you awake?"

I froze. That voice was very, very much _not_ Dad. There's no way a man with a voice as deep as Dad's could possibly mimic such a high-pitched voice. Was it Lauren? But she has no reason to be mimicking someone else's voice, right? Why would she be here already anyway?

Rolling over, I realized that the ceiling looked really different than the one in my room. Why? Did I sleep over at someone's house? I sat up and looked around. The clock ahead stared at me. 8:12.

"Campbell? I'm coming in!"

The door slowly creaked open, and there appeared a brown-skinned girl in a beige sundress with pink bangs and—

Coma. Necklace. FMA. Rosé. Clock. Lucid dream. Right.

So apparently, it _is_ possible to sleep within a dream.

Rosé continued talking, seemingly unaware of my morning turmoil. "I brought over some clothes for you, though I'm not sure if they'll fit. There's a bathroom with a shower down the hallway to your left. I already left an extra towel, toothbrush, and hairbrush there for you. I'll leave the clothes here on your bed. When you're done, I will be down by the main entrance."

As soon as she left, I got up and looked at what she brought. A pair of black shorts and a pink tank top. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw a bag and peered inside to see underwear, newly bought and untouched. There was even a nice little note in there saying that she purchased it this morning. What a sweetheart.

After doing my business and going back into the room to grab my flower crown, I exited the room once again and looked down the hallway to my left and to my right. They both went on for a while and branched off in many places. It was a bit confusing, really...

...

...

...Which way am I supposed to go?

* * *

I eventually found a priest in a black robe and asked him for directions. Thank the goddess (or should I be thanking the almighty Sun God Leto?) that I crossed paths with him on my otherwise never-ending quest to find out where exactly Rosé went. Though I must admit, I got the same kind of feeling some people get when they go into a hotel looking for their room and they get the undeniable urge to just run all the way to the end of the hallway.

I gave into my urges a couple of times. What were they going to do about it, smite me? Pray that their sun god set me on fire?

I opened a pair of wooden doors to see that Rosé was on her knees, praying in front on the table, and just behind it was the giant state of Leto. I have to say, I couldn't really see it that well last night, but the statue was _gigantic,_ and actually really well designed, with that weird parted beard of his that he must love to stroke if he kept his hand on it all the time. Actually, with that pointy crown of his and the long gown, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Statue of Liberty.

...Oh goddess, did I just compare this junk religion's god to _the Statue of Liberty_?

Rosé noticed I was looking at the statue and beamed. "This is the Sun God Leto. Father Cornello came to this town a few years back and preached to us about the path of God. He said that God will grant eternity to the living and resurrection to the dead, and he proves it by showing us these amazing miracles that would be impossible unless he was telling the truth!"

"Eternity and resurrection?" I asked to no one. "Has he granted either of them yet?"

The girl's smile faltered the tiniest bit. "Well, if we pray enough, I'm positive Leto will be granting our wishes soon. That's what Father Cornello says. With just a little more praying, everything will be—"

The muffled cheers from outside broke off her preaching.

"Oh! Father Cornello's showcasing his miracles right now! Did you want to go and look?"

I shook my head. I wasn't sure how I'd react to seeing something like that with my own eyes, and the last thing I want to do is end up fainting, or puking, or doing something stupid. "I can always catch them another time, right? I probably interrupted your, uh, praying session, so I'll let you finish up so that you can tell me some more."

Rosé nodded and went back to whispering to herself, just as the bell at the top of the church started to ring. I'm going to have to steal that ring from Cornello, right? I don't want him to continue conning these poor people until they turn against each other. But thinking about it some more, I _definitely_ don't want the homunculi to be on my back... Well, I guess it isn't really my problem, since the Elrics should be coming at some time if everything is going as the manga or anime is. But _when_ exactly are they coming? Tomorrow? Am I months early? Years?

Wait, which anime is this following? The 2003 or the 2009? Crap, how am I supposed to figure any of this stuff out?

"Ah, so this is Mr. Leto?"

I jumped out of my skin. I'd know that condescending voice from just about anywhere.

Rosé and I turned around to see exactly what I expected. Lo and behold, a blond shrimp and a walking, talking suit of armor. I think I underestimated just how tall Alphonse was. The girl next to me stood up and turned to face the two. "Are you interested in the religion of Leto?"

"Nah," Edward simply stated. "Unfortunately, I'm an atheist."

Rosé gave a small smile and closed her eyes, beginning to preach once again. She had at some point came to say that if Edward became a believer, he could pray for Leto to make him taller, and I couldn't help but snicker. She had said it with such sincerity, and Alphonse had to hold the little guy back.

"Resurrection of the dead," Edward said as he sat down on one of the pews. "Do you seriously believe in something like that?"

"Yes," came the reply, with not a moment's hesitation.

Edward sighed and took out his journal, beginning to read off the components of the human body. It was at this point that I realized that I was _completely invisible_. Neither of the two brothers have even spared me a _glance_ so far _,_ and poor Rosé over here was looking beyond confused as he read off of his list. "...What?"

The blond closed his journal and proceeded to talk, apparently to the floor. "Those are the ingredients that make up an average adult human body. We know this from our advances in science, but there haven't been any reports of successful human transmutations." His eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. "You really think that praying could solve something that even science couldn't solve?"

Rosé frowned. "'Pray and believe, and your wishes shall be.'"

"And by the way," Edward said, disregarding Rosé's statement, "you can buy these ingredients at the market with a kid's pocket money." He had his hands behind his head in a relaxed and mocking manner. "Humans are made pretty cheaply, aren't they?"

"People are not things. Those words are blasphemy to our creator. You'll suffer divine punishment for that."

I winced. I don't think I ever noticed what religion really did to this girl. It's like she thinks that if you disregard the religion, Leto will smite you. Or set you on fire.

Edward let out a quick laugh that held no amusement as he sat up. "Alchemists are scientists, after all. We don't believe in creators or the existence of God. Looking for the solution to the creation principle of this world and pursuing the truth." He looked up at the statue of Leto. "It's pretty ironic we're the closest things to God in a sense, even though we have no need for him."

That seemed to tick Rosé off. "Are you saying you're on the same level as God? How arrogant!"

"Arrogant, huh?" He crossed his legs and looked up at the ceiling. "I remember this from a mythical tale. 'The hero who gets too close to the sun shall have his wax wings plucked and be dropped to the earth.'" He smirked and looked Rosé in the eye.

"Brother," was all Alphonse could say.

Done with his rant, Edward stood up and faced Rosé. "Lady, will Mr. Leto save a scientist like me? Even though I was thinking something like that?"

Just like that, Rosé seemed to have forgotten how angry she was. "Of course! He will accept reformers at any time! I'll ask if Father Cornello can meet up with you three right away!"

"'You three?'" Edward asked, turning to look at me. It's about time you noticed me, you jerk face.

"Yeah, _three,_ " I spat as Rosé left the room. I didn't mean for it to come out so rudely, but it was too late to take it back.

The blond frowned. "You believe in this stuff?"

Ouch. That was insulting. "Of course I don't. All I'm interested in is Cornello and his so called 'miracles'. I'm sure you didn't come all the way here to preach your atheism to some girl you just met."

He seemed a little irked by that comment. "Then what religion do you follow?"

"None."

"So then you're spiritual?"

"No, that's not it. I don't _know_ if there is some kind of higher power or not, so I chose the 'I don't know' route. I'm an agnostic in that sense, but I choose to live my life as if there are no gods or goddesses since there's no reason for me to."

Edward seemed a little confused at first, but nodded in understanding. "That's fine, I guess. As long as you don't go around following some con artist."

After that, we were all silent until Rosé came back with a rather familiar priest...

Wait, wasn't that the same priest that gave me directions? And _isn't he the one that had the gun?_

I swayed. I could have been shot this morning. _I could have been shot and killed this morning._

The priest began to escort the four of us, and we ended up walking in a huge hallway lit by only the lanterns that lined the walls. A good way to set up the mood for what was about to come.

I came up to Edward's side and nudged him lightly in the rib. He turned to look at me with irritation, but before he could say anything, I put a finger up to my lips. I pretended like I had a jacket on and opened up one side of the jacket with one hand while reaching in with the other hand and pretended to bring out a gun. I shot the hand gun and put it back into the imaginary inside jacket pocket before pointing to the priest. I had debated telling one of them on the way to the room, and I came to the conclusion that I probably should if I want to up my chances of survival, and there was nothing to lose by telling them. Edward apparently understood what I meant and nodded. Billions of games of charades certainly helps with this kind of stuff, I think.

"This way, please." We finally reached yet another set of big wooden doors, this one guarded by two priests in white with big, pointy staffs. The big door to the right opened, and we all began to make our way inside.

"The high priest is a very busy man, and he usually cannot find the time for such matters, but..." the priest in black said, "you folks are lucky."

Edward smiled. "Sorry for the trouble. I'll try to make it quick!"

 _GO!_

As soon as the two priests in white inside the room began to close the door, I made a sort of zigzag line to behind one of the pillars on the right side of the room. Behind me, I heard a gunshot and some grunting noises, a gasp that was distinctively Rosé's, a scream, and more grunts. By the time I decided it was safe to look from behind the pillar, the three priests in the room were already knocked out, and the shrimp was already raising his hand in the air. "Strike!"

"So noisy!"

Oh no, here comes the big bad wolf himself, out from the shadows to kill us all. "Welcome to the holy order, Fullmetal Alchemist."

Rosé looked absolutely relieved. "Sir Cornello!"

I noticed the gun that was by Rosé's feet, and decided to slowly make my way to her as Cornello and Edward talked. I'm not going to let this poor girl be tricked into shooting someone. At some point, Cornello used the stone on his ring to make a miniature Leto statue, and I took that as a sign to hurry up before something bad happens.

I grabbed the pistol and put it in my back pocket. I felt so out of place being here...

Rosé seemed to have noticed me being there, and I smiled nervously and gave her a thumbs up.

Ed began to walk towards Cornello. "Still gonna play dumb? Guess I'll have to get my hands on you and ask your body for the truth."

Cornello's frown deepened. "You seem to be an incorrigible heathen. Rosé," he said as he looked over to her, but the surprise was evident on his face when he didn't see the gun by her feet anymore.

"Y-Yes?" She seemed scared out of her mind right now. How could this poor excuse for a human being do something like this?

Cornello noticed that I was standing next to Rosé. Crap. "You, girl."

My eye twitched. Screw you. I am _not_ a girl. "Yeah?"

"Are you with these two sinners?"

I looked over at the brothers indifferently. "No, not really."

He smiled that ugly smile of his. "Do you have the gun?"

I took it out my back pocket, careful not to let anything pull on the trigger. "Yeah. Why?"

"Shoot the Fullmetal Alchemist."

...Everyone in the room was silent, but _I_ was _boiling._ This... This _sadistic swine_ wanted to make an innocent girl like Rosé _kill_ someone, and _now_ he has the _audacity_ to _order me to murder._

It was at that point that all of the common sense that I had decided to take a short vacation.

I glared _daggers_ at the man. "You know what? No! Screw you!" I was screaming. I was spitting. But I didn't care in that moment. "Why would a High Priest, a prophet of the Lord, tell me to _kill_ someone? What happened to all that 'Love thy neighbor' and 'Humanity is but a single Brotherhood: So make peace with your brethren' stuff?

"If this god of yours is telling me to _end someone's life_ for simply _questioning them,_ then they're not the type of god that's worth worshipping to begin with. I'm not going to become a murderer because your son god is so goddess-damned _weak_ that all he can do is turn water to wine and talk to a depressing _gargoyle_ like you _telepathically._ If he wants to have someone dead, go tell him to just use his magical sun powers. Have him burn this mother kissing town down for all I care! Otherwise, tell him that he can go and _suck it,_ because I'm not doing it!"

I gasped for air as I quickly realized that I might have just gone overboard, even though I really wanted to say more. Nobody said a word for a couple of seconds and I was beginning to regret coming here in the first place before Edward tried and failed to stifle a loud laugh.

Cornello was enraged the whole way through. I think I just added a new wrinkle to his forehead. "Those words are evidence enough of their evil! They must be eliminated!" He began to back up to go flip the lever that I knew would send the chimera out. Now's a good a time as ever to _run like hell._

I made it behind a pillar just as the fusion started growling, its red eyes peering out from the shadows, then a paw, and then a head.

Cornello smirked victoriously. "Is this your first time seeing a chimera?"

A lion's head and front paws, a goat's body and back legs, and a serpent's tail. I shuddered. It looked much more horrific when you see it in a more realistic form.

Edward, however, looked at it with indifference. "So you made something like this with your philosopher's stone, too, eh?" Rosé began backing away as he walked forward. "I should probably arm myself." He clapped his gloved hands and slammed them into the ground.

Seeing alchemy on TV and seeing it for yourself are two completely different things. Blue strings of electricity flew around as a staff arose from the now dented flooring and into Edward's hand. Just like that.

Cornello was just as surprised if not more at the sight. He took a defensive step back. "Without a transmutation circle? I guess your title of 'State Alchemist" has to come from _something!_ But..."

The chimera began attacking Edward, and they both were putting up a good fight. Eventually, though, his staff was cut in two, and the chimera's claws _swiped his leg_.

Here, I'm not sure about what happened next. I think I might have blanked out for a few seconds or maybe a few minutes, because they next thing I knew was that I was on my knees, I dropped the gun, my flower crown was on the ground, and Cornello was _currently shooting a machine gun at them._

I picked up the gun and crown and quickly got up, suddenly wondering how much I missed as Edward transmuted a wall in front of them to keep them safe. The chimera was out cold, and everyone was still here, so I guess I was lucky enough to skip the fight but not the escape.

Scratch that thought, because Alphonse just grabbed Rosé and stated to run while Cornello started shooting again. Crap.

I began running towards them as Edward transmuted a door and opened it, leading to a white hallway.

Shoot, shoot, shoot. Cornello was running after us. I was closer to him than they were. And he _still had a machine gun._ Though I must admit that it wasn't that difficult to make sure an out-of-shape man like him didn't catch up with me, bullets travel much faster than people do. I safely made it behind the group as they swatted the priests away like flies, and looked behind me to see if Cornello was still running after us. Thankfully, he wasn't.

When we exited through the entrance, I decided to part ways with them to sit and take a break at the bar. Goddess, I was hungry, especially after all of that excitement, and I'm pretty sure I'd only get in the way if I stayed with them. Putting the gun back into my back pocket and the crown on my head, I made my walk down the road and sat on a stool surrounded by some men, thinking about delicious sandwiches and fruits and candies and pastries. It was only until a man came up from behind the bar and asked what I wanted to eat that I realized, once again, that I'm broke.

"Uh..." What was I supposed to do? Tell him that I just finished running away from Cornello and his mob of black and white cattle?

The man, however, smiled knowingly. "You're the one that Rosé was talking about yesterday, right?"

Bingo. "Yeah, that's me. Campbell. Traveler. Broke. Starving." Man, I sounded desperate.

He left and came back with more stew, which I was _immensely_ thankful for. The four thirty-something year old men around me gave me some questioning looks, but didn't do anything otherwise.

Okay. So this dream seems to be following the manga and 2009 anime. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I still need to find a way to get a philosopher's stone, and I sort of _did_ already figure it all out, but I really, _really_ didn't want to do it. But I couldn't think of another way to get one of those stupid stones that had a lower risk of me getting killed.

Just as the bar guy was filing a cup up with tea and I finished my second bowl, the show had finally begun. I couldn't help but feel bad as the nice bar man and everyone else around me had on shocked and horrified expressions. These people really believed in this man, and for it to all to just come crashing down in less than a minute without warning must be terrifying.

I decided that it was about time that I started getting ready for the first, and regretfully the easiest, part of the plan. I got up from my stool, thanked the man behind the bar, mentioned to him that the cup he was filling was overflowing, and made my way back to the entrance of the church to sit down at the bottom steps. It seemed like Edward and Cornello were already fighting in the main room where Rosé was praying, what with all of the explosions and noises.

I waited for the two brothers and Rosé to get together at the top of the stairs and start talking, all the while thinking about just how I was going to manage to pull this off. There were a bunch of faults to the plan and a whole lot of things that could go wrong, but this plan was my only ticket back, and I didn't want to be forced to stay here any longer than I had to. Get a stone, give it to Truth, and wake up. That's all I wanted.

As soon as the brothers started coming down the final steps, I took in a deep breath, got up on my feet, and blocked them. Oh, goddess, I already felt sick.

Edward glared at me. "What do you want?"

And there it was, right off the bat. Fault number one: Edward is in a piss poor mood.

My knees felt weak, I think a headache was starting to emerge, and I could feel the stew coming back up, but I stood my ground, squared up, and spoke as confidently and demanding as I could.

"Let me travel with you."

"No."

Fault number two: Edward is stubborn.

"Come on, you haven't even listened to my reasoning yet!"

"I don't need to. You're not traveling with us."

"Brother," Al spoke out, "give her a chance."

My eye twitched. You've got to be kidding me...

I swallowed up my correction (and the stew) and attempted to speak in a calm, rational manner.

"I might not look like much, but trust me when I say that I've traveled across the world and collected a ton of information, specifically about philosopher's stones."

Edward looked at me. "What do you know?"

"Well," I began, fighting back a nervous smile, "I'd love to tell you guys everything, but there are a few conditions that come with this valuable information.

"What do you need?" Alphonse asked.

Hook, line, and sinker.

"I need three things. First, I want to travel with you guys." I paused in case Edward wanted to refuse already, but he stayed silent.

"Second," I continued, "I need you guys to pay for my daily necessities while I travel with you. Food, clothing, hygienic essentials, a place to sleep, and whatever else. But I'm sure that since you Elrics have a ton of money, being with the government and all, this part shouldn't be too much of a problem." Again, I paused to see if there were any complaints. None. I took another deep breath.

"Finally, I want you guys to be able to promise me a stone—"

"There's the big catch," the blond groaned. "We're not giving up our stone to you. There's only one, and we're taking it."

I couldn't help but smirk. I'm sure it helped me look more confident than I really was, though. "What if I told you that there _wasn't_ just one stone?"

I'm sure that if Alphonse had a face right now, it would look shocked and confused. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that there's more than one stone. The one that Cornello had was actually one of them, but I guess it ran out of power."

"How many are there?" Edward asked.

I looked at him expectantly. "If you want any more information, you'll have agree to my terms."

The brothers looked at each other for a long, agonizing moment before Edward spoke. "Fine. You can travel with us."

 _Yes!_ I raised my hand in the air—

"But only if we get to keep the first stone we find."

—and lowered it. I huffed. "Do what you want. Just promise me that the second stone we find is mine and we'll have ourselves a deal." I held out my hand. Edward stared at it for a second before taking his flesh-and-bone hand and shaking on it. As much as I hated having to stay with them and be in constant danger, this was the only way that I could safely get a stone. Broke and with no way to travel, this was the only plausible solution...

Right?

* * *

A/N: Don't be expecting chapters to be coming up this often. I just want to let you get a feel of what you're on for. I think I'll set a time limit on updating for at the very, _very_ least once every two weeks, which should give me more than enough time for days off, story development, school work, reading, and everything else. If I don't make the time limit, it'll be for a very good reason, and I'll be sure to make an update to share with you the specifics and information on when the next chapter will be uploaded.

How are you liking this story so far? Anything you want to see or say to me? Criticism and compliments are always welcomed in reviews. If you spot any errors or something that doesn't make sense, please send me a private message so that I can fix them. Any other information you need, you can send me a private message about. Just make sure that I'm able to send one back by going to Account Options and putting Accept Private Messages on Yes. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until the next update for me to respond.

Also, beta-readers. Super cool. Send me a private message if you're interested.

Guest 1: Thank you for your review! I was really feeling down when I read it and it cheered me up just like that! I was aiming for a different approach to the whole "OC Gets Sucked into World" thing, since in almost all of the ones for FMA I've read, the main character is always white and blonde, and there's usually some type of romance going on between the girl and Ed or Al, which I just personally think is unrealistic. I also wanted to make the character have more personality than a box of dirt. I hope I achieved that somewhat. About your question, I had intentionally made Campbell's gender unknown for now. I left a little bit of bait in there for you, and all that you'll need to know will be revealed in the next chapter or two. You're welcome.

Guest 2: I screamed in joy as soon as I saw your review. No joke. Thank goodness I was home alone. I'm glad that you like the story and find it to be unique! Thank you for reviewing!


	3. How to Act Suspicious

Chapter 3: How to Act Suspicious

* * *

The Elrics and I began to make our way to a hotel to sleep in for the night before we head out for East City in the morning, and all that I could think about was _what exactly I was going to tell them when we got to the room._ Dream or not, I don't want to be involved in some story where I could possibly be put in danger or be killed. I don't want to change the story too much either, because then things become unpredictable and that's the _last_ thing I want to happen.

As we left Liore, I could barely hear the people of the town arguing amongst themselves about if the religion was all just a hoax or not. Remembering how Envy came out disguised as Cornello and caused more chaos, I suddenly became really paranoid about if anything I caught their eye. Just being with the two brothers now could have earned myself a thought or two. I shuddered.

Man, I was so tired... The Elrics were whispering to each other about something, but I didn't bother to try and listen in to what it was. All I wanted right now was some nice, uninterrupted sleep.

When we eventually entered our room, as soon as I spotted it, I made a b-line for a couch and lied there, hoping that they'd understand and I'd be able to just get some rest before being forced to answer any questions.

"Get up."

Why did I even bother?

I sluggishly sat up onto the couch and remembered that there was a _gun_ in my back pocket. I took it out carefully, put it on the table in front of me, and gave a halfhearted glare at Edward, who was sitting on the couch on the other wall next to Alphonse. "What?"

"What do you know?"

"Tomorrow," I said, and lied back down.

"No," Edward said. "We're probably going to be given another mission from Bastard Colonel tomorrow, so we need the information _now._ "

It might not be the best idea to argue with the people who are going to be taking care of me. Sighing, I sat up once again and looked at them. "Fine. Philosopher's stone stuff, right?"

They both nodded.

I closed my eyes. Goddess, I'm so tired. "Okay, so like I said before, there's not just one philosopher's stone. I don't know where they are, but there are plenty of them in this country, and they come in different forms. They could come in the stone form, like that disgusting varmint's ring, or perhaps a crystal or liquid or even a person. All of them are a deep red color—"

"Wait," Alphonse interrupted. "What do you mean when you say that a philosopher's stone could be a person?"

Shoot, didn't mean to let that slip. I'm too tired for this. "Well, hypothetically, I guess a once normal human being could be living off of a stone, if the transmutation is done correctly, and said person could possibly become immortal and super powerful. Also theoretically, people could be born from a stone, though they wouldn't really be human, and could also be immortal and powerful. And I think that I once heard about a thesis dealing with the possibility that dolls can be injected with the stuff and can be able to move on their own, but I don't think they'll have much of a consciousness, so they may go on a rampage."

Ed frowned. "Where did you learn all of this stuff?"

"I told you. I've traveled. Read many books, talked to many people. Anyway," I said, changing the subject back, "philosopher stones are man-made and it's possible to create one, but before you get your hopes up, I don't know any of the ingredients. All I know for sure is that it involves alchemy and that it's a disturbing and frowned upon process. I talked to a scientist who used to aid in creating the stones, but he wouldn't budge on what exactly it was made of."

"Do you know where he is?"

"Nope," I answered quickly. "Don't even know their name. He wouldn't give it to me. I got an anonymous letter one day and I met up with him. He showed up to the warehouse in a mask and everything. I just know that the last time I saw him, he was up in Central, but that was about a week ago. I wouldn't bother looking for him. It's likely that he fled the country."

Silence.

"What else do you know?" the youngest brother asked.

"Hm? Oh, that's it."

"What do you mean ' _that's it_ '?" Edward spout as he stood. "You can't be serious!"

I yawned. "But I am."

"What are we supposed to do with that information? How is that supposed to help us?" he yelled.

"I just told you that there were multiple stones, that they come different forms, and that they can run out of power and shatter. I think that's some pretty helpful stuff right there."

"Why don't you know anything else?"

"I'm a kid who just turned fourteen not too many weeks ago. Traveling takes time, and reading takes time, and finding the people who know stuff takes time."

The blond's frown deepened. "You're hiding something."

I flinched, and when I didn't respond Edward grew so angry. I couldn't blame him. With a situation like his, how could I? I didn't speak. I didn't know what to say.

"Well?" he questioned. "What is it?" His glare burned a hole in my head.

I turned to look away. "Nothing regarding you guys."

"We had a deal! You have to tell us everything you know about the stones!"

"Who says I didn't?" I blurted. What was I saying? He's going to kill me!

I didn't see it coming when he grabbed the collar of my shirt and lifted me up. I was about to push him off, but stopped myself—that was just asking for a world of pain. I'm too tired for this! I just want some sleep!

His voice told me that he wasn't playing any games. "I'll ask you one more time. _What. Are. You._ _Hiding_?"

I think I started hyperventilating. My heart was beating a thousand times a minute, and my vision was getting blurry. I looked over at Alphonse in a silent plea. He didn't move to help.

"Please," I cried out pathetically, "let me go..."

He didn't move a single inch as he stared at me. After an eternity of dead air, he unclenched his fist that was around my collar, and I dropped, attempting to calm my breathing and dry my eyes. This wasn't at all what I had planned! He wasn't supposed to be getting mad at me, never mind _threaten_ me. When I felt like I was collected enough to be able to at least talk, I saw that Edward was still standing in front of me, waiting.

"I... What I'm _hiding_ hasn't to do with searching for the stone," I managed to get out weakly, "and has nothing to do with either of you, as far as I would be concerned."

The blond looked less than pleased with my answer, but didn't say anything. He left to go into the bedroom, and half a minute later, I heard the shower running.

I attempted to collect myself some more, all the while trying to ignore Alphonse's gaze. Neither of us spoke for a second before:

"Are you telling us the truth?"

I gave a limp nodded. Goddess, all I wanted to do with sleep. Edward hates me, and neither of the brothers trusted me. Darn them and their observation skills. What did I do wrong?

He got up and went into the bedroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I lied down on the couch once more and thought back on what I should have done. Maybe things would have turned out better if I had planned things out more, or if I hadn't acted so confident in the plan. Now look at where it got me.

I miss home. I miss playing chess with Riley and binging TV shows with Lauren. I miss making pancakes with Dad on Sunday mornings and discussing the news and just talking about anything and everything. I miss our monthly picnics and I miss playing soccer and I miss the smell of home and I miss my bed and I miss my family. I felt so empty and alone, and the feeling wouldn't go away, no matter how I readjusted myself on the couch or thought about happy things, like flowers, and sandwiches, and...

What kind of nightmare is this? For how long am I going to be stuck here?

* * *

My eyes shot open.

I stared at the ceiling, replaying the nightmare over in my head. Great. It's not like I needed any sleep anyway.

After I felt like it was safe to get up, I realized that someone had put a blanket over me while I was out. In all likelihood, it was probably Alphonse's doing. I can't imagine Edward doing something like that after what happened. Kicking the blanket back, I got up from the couch and headed over to pull a curtain away from the window. It was still dark out.

Suddenly, I felt a headache starting to grow. Water. I went over to the kitchen area and opened a cupboard to pull out a glass before filling it with tap water from the sink.

"Hey."

I gasped and jumped, spilling half of the glass of the water but luckily still holding on to the glass itself.

"I didn't mean to scare you! I'm sorry!"

I turned to see that Alphonse was sitting at the table with a book. How didn't I notice him sooner?

Shaking my head, I forced a smile. "No, it's okay. I'm just really jumpy. It wasn't your fault." I grabbed a bunch of paper towels.

"Oh, okay then." After I cleaned up most of the water and threw away the paper, I refilled my glass and started drinking, looking anywhere but in Alphonse's general direction, trying to avoid any more questioning. He wasn't having any of it.

"Why are you hiding things from us?"

"Because it doesn't involve you." I didn't dare say more. I didn't trust myself not to screw up.

He must have realized that I wasn't going to say anything else on the matter, so he asked another question. "What's your name?"

"...Campbell."

"That's an odd name. Where are you from?"

"Table City, Creta."

"Why are you alone?"

Always the sensitive one, I see. "That's a pretty personal question, Elric."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

More dead air. I tried drinking my water faster.

"Why are you awake?" he asked.

"Just some stupid nightmare."

"Did you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Talking about it can help sometimes."

I looked at him and wondered if it was concern or the hope of getting more information out of me that led him to push on the subject, but then I decided that I didn't really care. I felt excruciatingly alone at the moment, and right now there was a person willing to talk to me in a friendly manner. Whether that friendliness was genuine or not was a minor detail.

I sat down across from him and took a sip of water. "It was only a dream about home."

He pushed further. "What happened in the dream?"

Oh goddess, was I really going to talk about my dream within a dream to a person in my dream? "I... I was walking around my house, wondering where everyone was, and I walked outside to see Dad and my friends standing in the middle of the road, waving and smiling. And then a car came and hit them. And then I woke up."

"...Do you miss your dad and your friends?"

"..."

"Why aren't they with you?"

"..."

"What about your mom?"

I shot him a glare. "Stop trying to pry. If you want me to spill my life story, then you'll have to spill yours, too."

Alphonse stayed silent for a moment. "...Sorry."

I sighed heavily. "No, I didn't mean to act rudely. I'm just exhausted is all. Your brother hates me now, and a lot has happened in the past week, and I'm just tired."

"Brother doesn't hate you, he's just frustrated." Alphonse insisted. "Am I keeping you awake?"

I shook my head. "No. I usually can't go back to sleep after having a nightmare."

More silence. I started counting how many paintings were hanging up around the room. When I ran out of paintings to count, I spun the water around in the cup, watching it with vague interest as I created a tiny whirlpool within the glass.

"...Our mom died when we were young."

 _Whoa_ _._ That came out of nowhere. He's not actually going to say what happened, is he?

"I'm sorry that she died. I'm sure she was a lovely person, given how kindhearted you are."

He nodded, and waited a moment before asking, "What happened to your mom?"

Equivalent exchange. So that's how he's playing. I leaned back in my chair. "Beats me. My parents got divorced when I was young, and she left. She used to call me all of the time for the first few months, but those calls became few and far between, and eventually they just stopped altogether. I tried calling her a couple of different times, but the phone was discontinued. The last time I had called, it went to some young girl who had no idea who my mother was."

"I'm sorry. That sounds awful."

I couldn't help but grimace. "Not as awful as what you told me."

"...The stuff that you're hiding," he questioned, "does it have to do with your family?"

"Some of it, yeah."

"What about the other stuff?"

"It's none of your business."

"Is any of it about what the stone is made out of?"

"No," I lied. "It's nothing that you should worry about."

"Why?"

"Because it doesn't involve you, as far as I'm concerned."

"Why do you keep repeating that last part?"

Man, he's persistent. "Because I don't know everything about you guys, and it's possible that I'm wrong and it does involve you."

"Who are the people involved?"

"Specific kind of people. People who have..." I paused. Now that I thought about it, is it possible that I may qualify as one of those people? I mean, I don't _know_ if I can do alchemy without a transmutation circle—wait. The necklace, and the praying... I had used a philosopher's stone. Was that real? Or was that also a part of my dream? It _felt_ real, but on the other hand, so has everything else since then, but all of this couldn't _possibly_ be real. I _do_ have a Gate in this dream, so it should be possible for me to do alchemy without the circle, right? Could I possibly become a sacrificial candidate if they ever find out that—?

"Campbell?"

I jerked and looked to see Alphonse.

"Oh, sorry," I said quickly. My heart was beating rapidly. "I got lost in thought for a minute there."

"You had a scary look on your face," he said. "And you kept staring at your hands."

"You know what?" I yawned and picked up my glass to put it in the sink. "I think I'm starting to feel a little tired. I'll see you in the morning."

I turned to go back to the couch, and who do I see peeping from the bedroom door, listening in?

I glared at the shrimp for eavesdropping in on our rather _personal_ conversation, and he didn't back down as he returned a glare of his own. I decided to just give up and try to salvage a little rest before morning came. Tomorrow, if I remembered correctly, was going to be a long day.

* * *

And so morning came.

And I realized.

With sudden panic.

That I don't have any clothes to change into.

AHHHHH! How can this be happening? What happened to my other clothes?

Oh, right, I left them at the church. Along with my new toothbrush and hairbrush. And that church is now inhabited by powerful homunculi who could possibly kill me or use me as sacrificial material.

Fantastic.

"Uh, Elric?" I knocked on the door to the bedroom. No answer.

I called out and knocked again. Nothing.

"Is there something that you needed?"

I jumped and turned around to see Alphonse. I guess he was still reading at the table.

"Oh, hey, uh," I stammered, "I was wondering if I could get some money to buy a, uh, travel bag, and buy some clothes and hygienic stuff."

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll go talk to Brother." Before he could knock, Edward opened the door, fully clothed, grabbed my wrist, put something in my hand, and closed the door. I looked at my hand and found a big wad of paper money. I glanced at the suit of armor.

"Is there any way that you can get him to at least _acknowledge_ my existence and talk to me?"

He shrugged in a helpless manner. "He's still pretty angry about you keeping things from us."

"But it has _nothing to do with the stupid stones_ ," I tried to say. "He has no good reason to be asking for personal information when I don't even know where you guys were _born_ , never mind your story."

I heard a scoff come from behind the closed door, but nothing else. Sighing, I took a room key and left to go buy what I needed.

...I'm not completely sure about why I didn't notice this important detail sooner, but walking around and looking at all of these signs in front of these shops as I strolled down the moderately busy sidewalk finally made me notice a very, very problematic dilemma.

 _I can't read Amestrian._

I don't know how this dream could possibly had added in a fake written language on top of everything else, but it did. And I can't understand any of it. I guess I should just be thankful that I can at least easily communicate with people with talking. I don't really fancy the thought of being stuck in a dream where I was both illiterate _and_ unable to talk with people. I'd have no way of communicating, if you didn't count Morse code, but how many people actually would be able to understand it?

I decided to just walk around until I found a place with clothes lined up against the window, and a few blocks down I eventually found one. It took me a while to find out what my size was here, but once I did it was easy to pick out some pretty decent clothes. Luckily, they also sold things besides clothes, so I got all of my important hygienic stuff as well as a bag. I also spotted a small notebook and a pack of pens, and asked myself why the heck not as I made my way to the counter and payed for everything. Was I supposed to feel slightly guilty for buying all of this stuff with someone else's cash?

Making my way back downtown, walking fast, faces being passed, I hummed all the way back to the room to see the brothers eating a small breakfast at the table. Well, one of them at least.

"Welcome back, Campbell," Alphonse greeted. "Do you want any food?"

"No, thank you. I need to get ready to leave." I gave the left over money to the older brother and took some clothes and essentials to the bathroom to do my stuff.

After I put the gun and everything else in my bag and finished up, we left to take a train ride to Eastern Headquarters. To my dismay, the ride would take a while, since we were in the northern side of the East Area and East City was on the southern side. When we boarded the train, the brothers sat together while I sat on the other side next to the window seat. Also to my dismay, Edward was sitting directly in front of me.

I thought that now would be as good a time as ever to catch up on some sleep, but I gave up after a while when it became clear that it wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, so I settled for jotting down what I currently know and don't know in the eyes of the Elrics so that I can keep track and not become more a screw up than I already am.

"What are you writing?" Al asked after a while.

"Oh, um, just some, uh, stuff. Stuff about home."

"Can I see it?"

I didn't see any harm in it, since it was highly unlikely that he was going to be able to read it, so I handed it over. Edward peeked over to catch a glimpse, but frowned when he tried to read it. "What language is this?"

"A dead one," I told him. "I don't know a single person in this country besides me that can read it, so I know that it'll be safe."

He grunted. Alphonse asked, "What's the name of the language?"

"English. It's a fairly simple language overall, with its confusing points here and there."

"I've never heard of it before. Can you speak it?"

"Nope. I can only read and write it."

Edward looked at me. "I've been meaning to ask you this for a while. Why do you always wear those flowers on your head?"

"Huh? Oh." I took the crown off of my head and twirled it around my finger. "It's a fake flower crown. The ones that my friends and I make with real flowers eventually wilt, so on my birthday one of them got me a fake one that won't wilt."

"Wow, you're really girly."

I twitched. "Flowers don't have a gender, jerk face. One of my two friends is a guy, and he makes flower crowns, too."

Al jumped in. "So is he your boyfriend?"

I frowned. "No, he's not. I'm not all too interested in finding a romantic partner right now."

Edward turned to his brother. "Why would you ask if he had a boyfriend?"

"'He?'" Al questioned. "I thought Campbell was a girl."

"Campbell? That's a weird name. But he's definitely a guy, right?"

They both stared at me, and I pressed my lips to a thin line. I guess it wasn't really their fault or anything for not knowing. I shook my head and prepared to blow their minds.

"Okay, guys. What if I told you..."

They leaned in.

"...that I'm actually..."

Further. I paused for a dramatic reveal.

"... _neither?_ "

...

...

"...What?" Alphonse said.

"What do you mean you're 'neither'?" Edward asked.

I smiled. "I mean what I said. I don't have a gender."

"But what does that _mean_?" the blond exclaimed. He looked so confused.

"It means that I don't feel like a male and I don't feel like a female. I'm _neither._ It's that simple."

"But—"

"No, Elric, I'm not going to tell you what's in my pants. It's not important. Just use 'they' and 'them' when referring to me. I'm sure you'll live."

Edward leaned back and mumbled something about weird homeless people. I chose to refrain from saying anything. Alphonse handed me back my notebook and I continued to write.

"I don't recall a time where you've called us by our names," Alphonse started. "Why?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to, so I played it safe. Is there a problem?"

"No," he said, "but you're allowed to call us by our first names if you want, since it can get confusing sometimes."

I thought about it. He had a point. "Okay. When the two of you are in the same room, I'll consider using your first names." End of conversation. Or so I thought.

"Those friends you mentioned earlier..." Edward began. "Where are they?"

Why are these brothers so nosy? "Elsewhere."

"Why aren't they with you?"

"If you want my life story, then give me yours. Equivalent exchange, State Alchemist. I didn't come traveling with you so that I can be interrogated to death. Oh wait, I already _have_."

He ignored my bitter tone at the end. "Why do you want to travel with us anyway?"

I'm starting to frown on a regular basis, I realized. "Well, consider the fact that, like you stated earlier while you were mumbling, I'm basically _homeless._ I'm out here alone with nothing but the clothes on my back and no way of getting a job. I'd have to earn myself enough money to get an apartment, all the while paying for bills and clothes and essentials and food. And while I'm doing _that,_ I'd have to go out and try to search for a philosopher's stone, and I can't be gone for too long because otherwise I'd lose my job and start from the bottom all over again. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather stick with people who have both money to spare and the same goal as I do."

"Then why didn't you just come here with your family or friends?" Ed questioned. "Then you wouldn't have to come along with us."

I stared at him. I stared, and I'll keep staring until he _took a hint_. Was he serious? He should be the _last_ person in this dream to be asking me about _family_ of all things, _especially_ after everything he heard last night.

After a long silence, he eventually muttered, "Message received," and opted to looking out the window.

There wasn't any more talking after that. I kept noticing how it looked like Alphonse kept wanting to say something, but didn't. It was probably a question about what happened last night, and I was grateful that he was keeping his mouth shut about it for now.

Minutes later, the train stopped and the three of us silently made our way to Eastern Headquarters. I wasn't sure on what to do about the whole situation regarding Nina and Tucker, and that terrified me. Should I step in? Did it even matter?

* * *

A/N: This was more of a filler type chapter than anything I guess, but I felt the need to try and develop the character a little more before jumping into anything drastic.

This is such a great stress reliever. Even if no one was reading it, I'd still be writing. Seriously, try it. It's fun, and it's a great way to spend some free time when you're bored, or stalling.

How was the chapter? Was it enjoyable? Or did it make you want to gouge your eyes out? Criticism and compliments are always welcomed in reviews. If you see any errors or things that don't make sense, please send me a private message and I'll fix it up.

Also, beta readers. If you're interested, hit me up with a PM. We can work out the details and make some sort of schedule.

Speaking of, I quickly want to thank _BlueBookDragon_ for their review and on trying to help me find a beta! On the off chance that I'll actually manage to get a beta, I will probably have them to thank. I actually follow their own OC-insert fic, _The Price of a Life,_ but I didn't have the confidence to leave a review because I didn't want to say something stupid or make them feel uncomfortable with my awkward rambling... But I've since realized how reviews can make a person feel happy, and I'll probably be leaving reviews around more often now. I _would_ leave a review on their newest chapter but... that just seems awkward to do so at this point. Just know that their OC-insert is one of the few that I actually like and enjoy in the FMA fandom on this site.

P.S.: I'm currently trying to read _Fahrenheit 451_ , and I feel like I'm dying from all of the poetic terms and purple prose in the book, describing everything in loving and drooling detail. S.O.S.


	4. How to Make Choices

Chapter 4: How to Make Choices

* * *

The Elrics and I reached our new hotel room to drop or stuff off and entered Eastern Headquarters. We made so many twists and turns that I wonder how long it took the brothers to even remember how to get around here without a map. Soon we walked into the right room just as Hawkeye was talking to someone.

"Sergeant Fuery, how is the radio?"

I looked over at a young man with black hair struggling with some device. "The receiver is broken. We'll need to replace some parts..."

Edward, being the flashy kind of guy he is, clapped his gloved hands together and put a hand on the receiver. Blue light and the sound of alchemy, and it voilà.

Fuery gasped and looked up. "Edward, Alphonse! And...?" He was looking in my direction now, confused.

"Welcome back, you two," Hawkeye greeted. "Who's your friend?"

"Friend?" Edward pointed his thumb at me. "Oh, them. They're just some kid we made a stupid deal with."

I twitched in annoyance, but chose to keep my mouth shut.

She gave me a thoughtful look before speaking again. "The Colonel has been waiting for you."

Edward grunted, but the two brothers made their way to his office without a word.

"Um," I began, because it seemed so out of place for me to be with them, "I'll just wait out here and—"

"No," the blond interrupted, "you're coming with us to relay to Colonel Bastard what you told us."

What? You've got to be joking. That guy is the _king_ of observation. If Edward was able to see that I was hiding something, then he _definitely_ will notice something as well. But I didn't have it in me to argue, so I gave a shaky nod and followed them inside.

As soon as I walked in, I could already feel Mustang's calculating eyes staring at me, and I forced down a shudder.

"Who's this?" he asked. I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Edward and Alphonse sat on one of the couches and I sat on the other as the blond answered. "This is a traveler who has information about the philosopher's stone, albeit they're rather annoying."

I didn't dare react. Mustang's eyes were still on me, and I couldn't help but look away from his gaze to the wall behind him.

"Well," he started, "before we get to her—" I grit my teeth. "—let's get this out of the way. The matter of Liore is settled all thanks to you. I'd like to express my gratitude."

Edward looked bored. "It wasn't for you or anything."

Mustang ignored him. "And was the search for the philosopher's stone a failure again?"

The shrimp didn't say anything though. He was looking at _me_. Did he expect me to answer?

"Oh, uh," I stammered, "for the two Elrics, yeah, it was a failure. While the High Priest _did_ have a stone, it ran out of power by the time they got to it and it, um, broke. It had been powerful enough to create a chimera and show the town a couple of tricks daily for a few years, but we were unlucky with our time of arrival."

More calculating looks. This is so uncomfortable.

"Tell him what you told us," Edward said.

I stayed stiff. I didn't want to give away any signs with body language. That must have been the thing that got me caught last time, right? "Um, well, to start with, there's more than one stone. There're a few of them scattered in this country, but I don't know where. They come in a deep red color, and can appear as a stone, crystal, or liquid, but can also be in a person. With the people, they can just be dolls injected with a stone and be able to move on their own. Theoretically, it should be possible for a person to be born via a stone and live off of it, or have a once normal human being living off of one as well if the transmutations are done correctly. Again, those last two are just _theoretical_... Uh, what else?"

"Making a stone?" Alphonse pointed out.

"Oh, right, um... The stones are man-made, as there's no possible way that they can be natural, but I don't know what they're made out of. They're able to run out of power, though how quickly is dependent upon how much of the ingredient or ingredients were gathered to make it. All I really know about the process of making one is that it's terrifying enough to scar a man for life."

When Mustang saw that I was done, he asked, "Why do you say that?"

"...Because I was able to talk with one of the scientists who helped make philosopher's stones, but they hid their face behind a mask and wouldn't tell me their name. I'm pretty sure they fled the country already."

He took a moment to think. "What's your name?"

"Campbell."

"Odd name."

I sighed. "I get that a lot."

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen." What is this, _20 questions_?

"Are you an alchemist?"

"I've never performed alchemy in my life."

"Why are you looking for a stone?"

"Personal reasons."

"Care to explain those reasons?"

"Not really."

"How did you get this information?"

"I travel. Read books, talk to people, gather information."

"Are you traveling alone?"

"I didn't want the people I was traveling with to come with me to Amestis." I'm getting sick of these questions, like damn.

"Why is that?"

"Because it could potentially be dangerous."

"How so?"

"Are we done, sir?"

Mustang stared intensely some more before letting it drop. "Well, since you all are looking for a stone, how about you seek help from a specialist?"

"Huh?"

He brought out a file from his desk. "The Sewing Life Alchemist, Shou Tucker. He's a scholar in chimera transmutations. I'll introduce you to him."

Alphonse seemed surprised by his offer. "You're going to go out of your way to do that?"

Edward got up abruptly and pointed at the man. "It's a trap! There's definitely more to it than that!"

"Don't look at me with those suspicious eyes!" Mustang yelled.

Ha, says the one who wouldn't stop giving me those same eyes. You jerk.

He continued. "We're even after that case in Liore. It just feels disgusting to know that I owe you."

More twists and turns later, we exited the building, and all the while I'm thinking about whether it would be right to interfere with this situation. I mean, these people aren't _real_ or anything, and this is a major point in the Elrics' lives and it could throw the whole story off if I saved Nina. But... Should I feel guilty about the thought of letting her end up dead? I felt bad for Rosé and the rest of Liore for being conned like that. How is this any different?

We got into the backseat of a super old-timey looking car, and I was forced to sit next to who else but Mustang.

"Tucker became a State Alchemist two years ago after transmuting a chimera that understood human language."

"'Understood human language'?" Edward said. "It could speak? A chimera?"

"Yeah," Mustang answered. "Apparently, it did. Just one sentence. 'I want to die.' It never ate afterwards and killed itself."

The brothers sat there in shock for the rest of the ride while I tried my best to keep a straight face.

The car arrived at the residence and everyone got out and walked to the front door. Mustang swung the steel chain around to ring the silver bell. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big, white dog running in our direction, and took a few steps back.

"What a huge house," Edward said in awe before his view was blocked by the dog and he was crushed. I winced in mock sympathy.

"Brother!" the younger Elric stuttered.

"Wow, we've got a lot of visitors!" The door was now open, and a cute little girl with a long brown braid—Nina—smiled widely. And behind her...

"Nina, we have to keep the dog tied down," Tucker told her with a frown. I had to keep myself from glaring.

We all went inside the house, and it was _disgusting._ There were so many dirty dishes piled up in the sink, and webs and dust were everywhere. I made a mental note to watch out for spiders. Tucker led us to the now dust-free table and went to the kitchen to come back with cups of tea for all of us.

"I'm terribly sorry," he said. "This house has been in a mess ever since my wife left." He sat on one side of the table with his fingers intertwined while the other three sat down on the other side and I stood leaning behind them on the wall. There only seats left at the table were the two next to Tucker, and there was no way in hell I was going to sit beside him.

He continued. "Well, pleasure to meet you, Edward. I'm Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist." He smiled.

Mustang nodded. "He's interested in the transmutation of living organisms. He said he would love to have the honor of seeing your work."

"Sure, that's fine with me."

The brothers looked at each other and smiled while I kept my eyes on the man the whole time. He didn't really seem to notice me all too much. He had a small frown on his face now, and so did I, still caught up in my moral predicament.

"One thing, though." The other three turned their attention to Tucker in confusion. "If you'd like for me to show you my hand, I'm going to need to see yours, too. Isn't that what being an alchemist is all about?"

Edward looked at him with slight anger, but he kept talking as if he didn't notice.

"Why are you interested in the transmutation of the living organisms, exactly?"

Mustang shifted in his seat. "Oh, well... he's..."

"Um," I spoke up for the first time, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think I'm just going to sit outside for a while. I can see that this is quite personal, and I'm sure you Elrics don't want me listening in. Call for me when you're done explaining." I set the empty cup of tea down at the table and excused myself without another word. Really, I just wanted an excuse to rid myself of being anywhere near that disturbed man, and this was the perfect time to do so.

When I went outside, Nina and her dog were sitting under the shade of a tree, and I walked over.

"Um, hello, Nina," I said awkwardly. "What are you making there?"

"Oh, hello, Big Sister!" she exclaimed. I choked up a sigh and just let her call me whatever. "I'm making a flower thing for Alexander to wear on his head, kind of like yours!"

I gave a small smile. "A flower crown?" Nina nodded and let me inspect her work. It was a bit sloppy for sure, but not too shabby for a kid. "Do you want me to show you a technique on how to make the flowers stay together better?"

She nodded enthusiastically, and ended up starting another crown from scratch while I made one of my own as an example. When we were done, she put her crown on Alexander's head and I put mine on hers. She beamed with joy at the new accessory on her head and thanked me. I felt really good about doing this with her. I'm an only child, so I never had anyone to call a little brother or sister. But it was at that moment that I remembered what was to come.

"What's wrong, Big Sister?"

"Huh?" Nina looked at me with worry. "Oh, it's nothing. That flower crown looks amazing on you," I pointed out.

"Does it?" Her smile was contagious.

"Campbell?"

I screamed and jumped up. Alphonse was standing a few feet away. When did he get here?

I took a deep breath. "Please stop scaring me like that, Elric. You're going to be the death of me."

"I'm really sorry," he said. "Do you want to come see the reference room?"

"Oh, sure," I said and followed Alphonse. Edward was already engrossed in a book like the nerd he is, and I decided to start searching for a book to read as well.

And then I looked at the book titles.

And I was reminded of the fact.

That I can't read Amestrian.

I frowned, disappointed, and lied down in front of the shelf in defeat.

"Campbell?" I heard Alphonse say. "What are you doing?"

I turned around to look at him. "Lying down."

"Do you need help searching for a book?"

I grimaced. "No. I have a headache right now, so I can't read or else it'll get worse."

"Oh," he said and went back to reading his own book.

Time passed. Edward had a least three dozen books around him and one more in his hands as he sat on the floor. Alphonse stood in front of a shelf as he read. I was thinking the whole time. At first I had been thinking about Nina, but then I started to recap everything that has happened since the beginning, and I was starting to wonder. When I was praying, and the necklace—the stone—started acting up... Was that also part of the dream? It had certainly seemed _real_ , but then again so has everything else since that moment as well. I mean, it had to have been part of the dream, but what if it wasn't? What if that actually happened?

And then I thought of something else. Is it possible to bring a stone back with me? If I could find two stones, I could offer one to Truth and then wake up with the other, right? If I was able to do that, and I wake up without a necklace but with another philosopher's stone in my pocket, then it would mean that this all wasn't a dream, and I would be able to heal Dad's brain injury so that he can wake up! Of course, this was all hypothetical and highly unlikely, but on the off chance that it was true...

I felt nauseous. If it were true, then the people around me were also real, and I would be in _real danger_ , and so would everyone else.

Someone's—Nina's—giggling broke my train of thought. Edward and I glanced at each other before getting up to see what was going on. Nina was sitting around Alphonse's shoulders, and Alphonse was lightly stomping around.

"Up high! Up high!" he laughed.

Edward didn't look happy. "Al, what the heck are you doing?" he screamed.

The younger brother stopped to look at him. "Nina seemed like she wanted someone to play with her."

"Hey, what the heck do you think we're here for—" He stopped when he noticed a big shadow casting over him before he was yet again crushed by the dog.

Nina smiled. "Alexander wants someone to play with him, too, he says."

The blond stuck his head up. "You've got some guts..." He got up from under the dog. "It's said that even while hunting rabbits, lions put forth their fullest effort." And then he got enraged. "I, Edward Elric, shall deal with you with all of my physical and spiritual might! You damn dog!"

The dog started running away when Edward ran for him. Nina laughed, Alphonse stared, and I rolled my eyes. Nina wanted to play with me as well, apparently, so I gave in to her pleas and chased her around and tickled her while Alphonse carried her and let her slide off of his back.

Before I knew it, Havoc was already standing at the doors to the reference room. "Yo Boss, I've come to pick you up." He was met with the sight of Edward being crushed under the weight of the dog in defeat while Nina was petting said dog happily. "What are you doing?"

"Eh, just taking a break from research..." Edward said as he got up, looking a little embarrassed.

Tucker smiled. "Did you manage to get good data?"

He smiled nervously, and Havoc smirked as Tucker gave a small laugh. "You're welcome to visit tomorrow, then."

Nina perked. "You'll come visit again?"

I nodded and smiled while Alphonse leaned down. "Let's play tomorrow, alright, Nina?"

"Okay!"

The sun was already starting to set as we left the house. I knew that Havoc stopped at the front door to quickly remind Tucker about the upcoming assessment, even though I wasn't able to hear it.

One more day. I had one more day to make a decision about if I should interfere or let the story be what it is. I got this terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach as we entered the car and Havoc began to drive us to our hotel.

We were all quiet, and I felt like throwing up. Maybe I would have if I actually had anything in my stomach. I completely skipped breakfast and lunch. Man, I was hungry...

"Hey, are you alright?"

Edward was staring. I put on a smile that I wasn't really feeling and nodded. "Yeah, I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"It doesn't matter."

The brothers began to exchange their findings (and lack thereof) while I tried to look as content and normal as possible. How could a father do something like that to a person, never mind their _own child_?

I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Alphonse's hand there. "You look sick," he said. "Do you still have a headache? Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," I managed. "I'm fine. Just revisiting some memories."

They both frowned, and I immediately cursed myself for telling them that. Luckily, they didn't press any further and continued talking. We made it back to the hotel and I felt so exhausted that I didn't really feel like eating anymore. I just wanted to lie down.

Edward took his nightly shower and I drowsily changed into my pajamas before lying on the couch again.

"You can sleep in my bed, if you want," the younger Elric offered.

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. You keep the bed. I'd feel more comfortable _not_ sleeping in the same room as the guy who hates me."

"He doesn't hate you. He's only—"

"He doesn't trust me, and neither do you. I get it. I wouldn't trust me either." Alphonse frowned, but didn't say anything otherwise and disappeared into the bedroom.

* * *

Hooray for sleepless nights. It was still dark out, and I couldn't get any shut-eye. Whether it was because I was thinking about Nina or because I was hungry was left in the air.

I hadn't seen Alphonse come out of the bedroom, so I made my way to the kitchen area and got out some bread to munch on. And I started thinking.

I'm terrified of what's going to happen. I still have the whole Nina situation to figure out, Scar will be coming up soon, the homunculi are on the loose, and I have no way of defending myself if you don't count for running and having a gun that I don't even know how to shoot. I hate it here. I would much rather being watching the soccer game with Dad, or playing board games with Lauren and Riley. I just want to go home. I don't want to be stuck here forever. I don't want to die. I don't want Dad to die. I miss him so much.

I heard a soft creek and saw Alphonse standing in front of me. I guess he heard me somehow? Well, it's quiet enough to hear a pin drop, so it wouldn't be hard to hear a person walking and taking bread out of a breadbox, especially if said breadbox is super squeaky.

He came to sit beside me, for some reason. "Why are you awake?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same question."

He freaked. "Oh! Well, I just don't need that much sleep, and I'm a light sleeper anyway, and—"

"Okay, I got it," I told him. We sat in silence, and I was wondering when exactly he was going to leave me and my bread alone in peace.

"...You're not okay, are you?" he finally said. It wasn't a question.

I smirked halfheartedly. "Am I that obvious? In any case, it's none of you concern. Go back to bed, Elric."

He didn't. "Tell me what's wrong."

What am I, a little kid? "Everyone has stuff going on. It doesn't matter."

"Is it your family?"

My eyes widened. I really was an open book. There really was no point in denying anything at this point, so I gave a short nod.

"What happened, Campbell?"

...Truth be told, I wanted to spill. I wanted to tell him _everything._ And it would have been so easy to do that. In that moment I felt more alone than ever. I really needed someone whom I could trust to tell my story to and just be honest with. I needed a friend. But life taught me a very important lesson about making important decisions like these.

Don't make choices when you're emotional. If you have to make one, choose the "No" route. Don't say anything you might regret.

"Go—" my voice cracked. I tried again. "Go back to bed."

Hey stayed there for a while longer, but eventually left. I just sat there in silence.

* * *

"You look like a mess."

I opened my eyes. Magnificent, how I ended up falling asleep siting on the floor. Edward was standing in front of me, fully dressed, and I glared at him. "Thanks."

"Did you want to stay in the hotel room for today?"

I shook my head. "No. I still have a headache, but I want to go play with Nina again." I got up to start my morning routine and eat some breakfast for once.

We arrived at the door after being dropped off and rang the bell. Nina and Alexander were already there waiting for us and lead us to the reference room. I settled for playing hand games with Nina and petting the dog, when I noticed that Nina didn't seem as lively as she was yesterday. I asked her what was wrong, and I ended up having to hear the story all over again as the brothers listened in.

"Huh, your mother left home two years ago?" Alphonse asked.

Nina looked down. "Daddy told me that she went back to her parents' home."

"Oh... It must be kind of lonely for you, being alone with you dad in a big house like this."

"No, I'm fine." She turned to hug the dog whom she had been leaning against. "Daddy's really nice, and I've got Alexander with me, too. But..." she paused, "Daddy's always at his lab these days, so... I guess I'm kind of lonely..."

My heart wrenched. I hated Tucker _so much_ for what he's planning on doing. But what should I do? I don't want a butterfly effect to happen and have the whole story twisted and turned upside down. But at the same time, I don't want Nina to have to die. This could easily be a case of either killing one hundred lives versus one life or zero lives versus one life. This could have no major affect or _every_ affect.

Edward closed his book and got up to stretch. "Ugh, my shoulders have gotten a little stiff."

"Why don't you exercise a bit, Brother?" Alphonse suggested.

The elder smirked as he rolled his shoulders. "That sounds kind of nice." He suddenly pointed to Alexander. "Hey, dog!"

Alexander perked and woofed.

"Accompany me on my exercises!"

Alphonse closed his book. "You, too, Nina."

She blinked for a couple of times before smiling. They all got up to leave, but I stayed seated. Nina turned towards me. "Are you coming, Big Sister?"

I strained a smile. "I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?"

She nodded and left the reference room to follow the two boys outside. A moment later, I stood and left as well to go find where Tucker was. Nina's giggling echoed inside the big house as I searched every room downstairs until I came upon one that was super dark inside, only lit by the single candle aflame on the desk that the man was sitting at. He turned around and relaxed when he saw that it was me. "Did you need something?"

I stood there, wondering what I was even doing. "I just wanted to talk."

He was already frowning. "About what?"

"About..." I paused. What am I _doing_? "About what you're planning on doing for this year's assessment."

"...Oh?" he said. "I'm planning on presenting another chimera, of course."

"...What kind of chimera?"

He paused. "Another talking one."

A cold shiver ran down my spine. "Um, how are you able to make them talk? I'm not really that interested in chimeras, but I've never heard of one talking before. How long did it take you to teach it to talk?"

"Forgive me for being rude, I'm busy right now, and a little stressed. Can you ask some other time?"

I really, _really_ wanted to punch that man in the face, call him out on what he was thinking, and have him thrown in a jail cell to live in for the rest of his life because scum like him didn't _deserve_ something as good as death. Stupid, narcissistic _scum like him_ didn't deserve to be let off easily by being killed. No, they needed to be taught a _lesson_.

But I didn't. I didn't call him out. Because I had a rule to follow. Don't make choices when you're emotional. If you have to make one, choose the "No" route. Don't say anything you might regret. I've always followed that rule. And I know the possible effects of calling him out. I couldn't risk it.

"Oh, well, good luck with your assessment then."

I left.

Like the asinine coward I was, I left.

And I felt like scum.

* * *

I was sitting with the brothers and Tucker at the table. Nina was petting Alexander not too far off in the corner. I started thinking about how this might be the last time I'll ever see her smile.

"Our lives before I got my state qualification were terrible," Tucker went on to explain, as if it was a perfectly sound reason for doing what he did. "We were so poor. My wife couldn't stand living in conditions like that, and she left our home. I need to pass the assessment, no matter what... I don't ever want to return to those days."

I wanted to retort, but Nina spoke first. "It's okay, Daddy! If they tell you 'No', Alexander and I will go scold the higher-ups!"

Alphonse laughed. "Nina sure is strong."

Tucker gave an eerie smile. "Nina... What do you say we play together tomorrow?"

My eyes stung, but I fought back tears and didn't say a word as Nina beamed and jumped in her father's arms to hug him.

"Really? Yay!" Nina shouted, and looked at her dog. "Alexander, Daddy said he'd play with us tomorrow!"

The dog woofed.

While the Elrics were smiling fondly, I was trying to keep from pulling Nina away and spitting at the madman's face. I angrily thought back to the gun and wondered if I should have brought it with me.

* * *

Arriving back at the hotel room, I didn't bother to get into my pajamas this time and just flopped onto the couch. I just wanted it to be morning already.

"Are you feeling alright?"

I groaned and opened my eyes to look at Alphonse sitting on the other couch. "Spectacular."

He disregarded my comment. "You've been having headaches for a while now, and you always look sick. Do you have a fever?"

"What? No," I told him. "I just get headaches a lot, sometimes migraines. It's just genetic."

"Oh." He paused. "Can you tell me about last night?"

"No."

"Can you tell me about the type of people involved with what you're hiding?"

"No."

"Do you have insomnia?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Are you depressed?"

"Of course not!"

"Then are you homesick?"

"...No."

Alphonse sighed and stood. "...If you ever need to talk about anything, you can talk to me. Okay?"

I nodded, glad that the conversation was over, and shut my eyes again, falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

If I had a dollar for every nightmare I'd ever had, I would still be broke here because American money doesn't work in Amestris.

Luckily, it was already around morning when I woke, so I took my shower and did my stuff before sitting back down on the couch and taking my gun out of the bag to just stare at absentmindedly. My thoughts were all over the place. Nina is probably already fused with Alexander, and if she isn't she will be soon. There's nothing I can do about it at this point.

Edward came out of the bedroom about twenty minutes later and looked at me. "You're already dressed?"

I shrugged.

The blond frowned. "You shouldn't be messing with that gun."

I shrugged again. I didn't really feel like talking. Or eating.

He went into the shower just as Alphonse came out of the bedroom. "Good morning, Campbell."

I nodded.

After Edward finished his breakfast, I put down the gun reluctantly and we walked outside to see the Havoc in the car already waiting for us.

I sat in silence for the whole ride as the Elrics talked. I felt like I was taking this better than I thought so far. I'll just walk in, let Edward go throw his punches, and leave. I already know what to expect. It shouldn't be too hard.

Dread finally settled in once the car stopped and I took my first step outside. The sky wasn't as bright as the other days. Today, it was dull and grey with all of the clouds overhead. It looked like it was going to rain soon.

Alphonse rung the bell, but no one came. After a couple of more failed attempts, he opened the door and called out. "Good morning, Mr. Tucker! We're going to be using your place again today!"

No answer. We all noticed how dark it was inside the house.

"Mr. Tucker?" Alphonse yelled as we entered the house.

"Hey, Nina?" Edward called out. With every step closer to the doors leading to the chimera laboratory, more and more dread weighed me down, and before I could mentally prepare myself enough, Edward opened the doors.

There they were.

As if I had expected anything else.

In the middle of the room.

Tucker was crouched down.

And beside him.

Unmistakably.

Undeniably.

Was a _white dog with long brown hair_.

"Mr. Tucker?"

"Oh, so you _are_ here. Hey, Campbell, what are you—"

I didn't think. I didn't even realize what I was doing until I approached him and threw my fist at his nose. There was no thought to it. I just did it. I could feel Alphonse's metal hands pulling me away from him, and I could hear someone yelling. I was finally able to make out what they were saying.

" _What the hell is wrong with you?_ " they were saying.

I scoffed dryly. "What's wrong with _me?_ " I yelled back. I was about to start crying. " _Look at what he did!_ Look at what he _did!_ Just... Nina..." I trailed off.

Edward's breath audibly hitched. He slowly looked over at Tucker, who was sitting on the floor.

"Mr. Tucker..." he started, "when did you get your state qualification again?"

"Two years ago."

"And when did your wife leave you?"

"...Two years ago."

"Can I ask you one more question?" His anger was seeping into his words. "Nina and Alexander. _Where are they?_ "

Alphonse gasped, and my skin crawled. I struggled to escape his hold, but he wouldn't let go.

Tucker readjusted his glasses. "I don't like sharp brats like you two."

In less than half a second, he was pushed up against the wall. I stopped paying attention to Edward as I finally got Alphonse to let go of me, and I crawled over to Nina and Alexander pathetically.

"Big... Sister..."

I wailed. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm..."

I can only remember one other time that I cried as much as I did in that moment.

* * *

The brothers left to who-knows-where, and I chose to stay behind and sit outside in the rain next to the guards who came for Tucker's assessment. I couldn't stop hating myself for what I didn't do. I knew it was going to happen, and I _let it happen anyway_.

I'm worse than Tucker. I'm worse than scum.

This is all my fault.

I heard heavy footsteps coming this way, but I didn't bother to look up. That is, not until I heard the distinctive sounds of alchemy course through the air not too far from me.

I looked up and froze. I would have thrown up if I had any food today.

The two guards were dead.

Their heads were bloody, and the stone under them was bloody.

That's when the metallic smell hit me.

And standing between them was a built man with white hair, brown skin, black shades and a yellow jacket.

Scar.

He looked down at me. "Are you a State Alchemist?"

I shook my head as I stared at him. He continued to walk forward, into the house. He was about to kill Tucker and Nina.

I didn't try to stop him.

* * *

A/N: Longest chapter yet. Not too proud of this chapter to be honest, and I would really have loved to fix it up, but I'm being forced to go camping with my family and my mother's boyfriend. And there will be no internet. And I won't be back home until Sunday afternoon. Man, I hate camping.

What'd you think of the chapter? Or the whole story so far? Criticism and compliments are always welcome in reviews. If you see any grammatical errors or things that don't make sense, send me a PM.

Beta-readers. Love ya'. Hit me up with a PM if you're interested.

P.S.: _Fahrenheit 451_ isn't turning out to be as bad as I thought. I still can't get over how the author described someone's paling skin as "white bacon."


	5. How to Find New Friends

g263593 5: How to Find New Friends

* * *

After Scar left, I decided not to sleep at the hotel. I didn't want to have to talk to anyone. I was too exhausted to deal with anyone after everything that has happened in the past few hours. So I walked around until I found a nice warm alley to sleep in that night.

I don't know what else I was expecting to be honest, but everything ached the next morning, and I was freezing cold. My crown was a bit dirty now, too.

It had stopped raining while I was asleep, thank goddess, but while I was walking back to the hotel, my clothes sticking to my body and my thoughts collected enough to start getting ready to confront the brothers with whatever they might throw at me, it started raining again. I quickly entered the hotel lobby and, after realizing that I don't have a key card, talked to the receptionist and had a man come up with me to open the door to the room.

Fortunately or regretfully, the Elrics were nowhere to be seen, and it was then that my brain decided to remind me that they were on the roof of Headquarters, where Scar would soon attack them. After taking a quick hot shower to soothe my sore body and changing into new clothes, I saw my gun still sitting on the table. My shirt was too tight to hide the gun in my back pocket or anything, and I didn't feel like changing again, so I was forced to take out everything from the bag and put the gun at the bottom before putting my clothes and toothbrush and hairbrush and everything else back in. It was unlikely that I was going to be forced to use it, but in the scenario that I will, I'll be prepared. Or, at least as prepared as I can be, since I still have no idea how to shoot the dang thing. I also thought it would be good to put my crown in there too, so that it wouldn't get any more damaged from the rain, and it wouldn't fly away were I to actually have Scar come after me.

As I walked into the building and asked for directions, I tried to prepare for whatever questions the Elrics would present, but it was difficult, trying to prepare for what you don't know is coming. And what would I say about not coming back to the hotel last night? I guess that I should tell them that Nina was killed to distract them for a bit while I come up with a plausible answer. I don't know if they were already told or not, but I was hoping that they weren't.

In due time, I finally found the staircase leading up to the roof. Right outside the door, though, I hesitated on possibly opening Pandora's box. I didn't _have_ to talk to them at this very moment, right? Between Scar's resentment and Edward's likelihood of being in a piss poor mood, it was excusable for me to just leave it all be for now, right?

A voice in the back of my head started screaming, ' _Coward! You coward! Stop running!_ ' I sighed and thought back to the church of Leto. I was running and hiding behind pillars, not really trying to help at all. If I don't stop running now, when will I ever?

I clenched the bag around my shoulder, took in a deep breath, and counted to ten before opening the door.

The brothers were sitting there, talking about something or another before they heard the door and looked towards me. I immediately regretted coming; I was probably interfering with something important, but it was too late to back out now. The box had already been opened.

No one said anything for a long while, and I felt compelled to talk. The silence was uncomfortable. "Um, I just, uh, came up here to tell you guys that Nina was killed by Scar yesterday and..."

Edward stood up onto his feet so suddenly that I jumped. "By who?"

"Um, Scar? The one who has been killing all of those State Alchemists lately?" Wait, wait, _wait a minute,_ did they not know about Scar yet? _Do they not know about Scar yet? Did I screw things up?_

He glared suspiciously. "How do you know who this 'Scar' person is?"

I just dug myself a hole that there was no easy escape from. I clutched my bag tighter. "I, uh, I was sitting outside of Nina's house, and a man with a scar walked up and killed the two guards standing outside, and then went inside to kill Nina, Alexander and Tucker."

Edward looked angry. " _And you didn't think to tell anyone?_ "

My eyes widened. "What? I'm telling you right now that—"

Edward interrupted. "Did you even _try_ to stop him? From the sounds of it, you just _let Nina die._ "

My shock morphed into anger. "What did you _expect_ from me? I'm not a State Alchemist; hell, I can't even do alchemy! How do you expect me to stop a man like that?"

" _I don't!_ " he yelled. "The problem is that you didn't even _try!_ "

"What did you want me to do, _ask him politely?_ And even if I _did_ save Nina, there'd still be no way of getting her separated from Alexander! They'd be _miserable,_ possibly even _experimented on_ for the rest of their lives! _"_

Alphonse stood between us. "Both of you, stop—"

His brother ignored him. " _Where were you last night?"_

I bit my lip, and felt a small train of blood flow down to my chin. "Elsewhere."

" _Tell us what you're hiding."_

I huffed loudly. "Why did the conversation turn to this again? What I'm hiding doesn't involve you!"

In a flash, his flesh hand was wrapped around my neck and he squeezed it. "Don't make me repeat myself, damn it!"

It would have been so simple to just tell him, but stubbornness, pride, spite, _something_ was keeping me from doing it. "It's personal and it's _dangerous,_ Elric! I'm not dragging you two into this with me!"

He squeezed harder. "How are we supposed to trust you when you keep _hiding things from us?_ "

I gasped for air. "It's too dangerous! I'm not telling you!"

"I'm going to _kick you out_ so that you'll be able to run off with that homicidal friend of yours unless you spit everything out _right now."_

I gasped. He wouldn't. "You... You can't _do_ that!"

" _Then tell us what you're hiding!"_

I couldn't think in that moment. My mind was jumbling back in forth between spilling or not, and I couldn't make a single rational thought. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

Edward was getting angrier by the second. "Say something."

But _what?_ I had to respond with _something,_ but _what?_

"What are you keeping from us?" he pushed.

Goddess, Cam, _say something!_ Why can't I say anything? Edward looks furious. He's going to _kill me if I don't say something!_

"Brother!"

It didn't register fast enough why Alphonse suddenly called out. Next thing I knew, my stomach was on fire and I couldn't breathe. It hurt. The only thing on my mind in that moment was how much it hurt. It felt like I had been hit by a truck. My ears were ringing, my head was fuzzy, and I wanted to puke. Damn it, it _hurts._ I felt my legs give in, but before I fell, someone caught me.

Although I couldn't make it all out, there was some yelling, and some alchemy, and some explosions. I could feel that whoever was carrying me was strong, and they were moving.

I don't know how much time passed, but I was eventually was lied down onto... concrete? I was still groaning in pain, and I couldn't open my eyes. More screams. There was the faint sound of cars over the rain, and more footsteps. I think Alphonse was calling out, "Stop it, _stop it_ ," but I couldn't be sure I was hearing right.

And then a gunshot rang in the air.

I managed to finally open my eyes, and when they adjusted I saw a dozen or so black cars and military men and women out blocking the road, guns pointed at something, or someone. Mustang was there among them and also had a gun in his hand, but the barrel was facing skyward. I turned my head over to see Scar, his right hand inches away from Edward's head, who was lying on the ground with his automail arm feet away from his body, completely vulnerable. It was raining too hard for me to hear what words were being exchanged between Mustang and Scar, but I could conclude even through my pain that it wasn't small talk over a cup of tea.

Mustang gave his gun to Hawkeye and began moving forward, his fingers ready to snap. I think Hawkeye was calling out to him before Scar charged at him. Even in my state, I remembered that the Colonel was useless in rain. Hawkeye ran towards Mustang and kicked his feet out from under him just as Scar would have grabbed his head, and the woman shot at him with both guns. He actually backed up towards _me_ and picked me and my bag up, despite my groan of protest, and put me on his back so that I was being given a piggy back ride before turning a corner.

"How awfully convenient for me that you can't use your flames, State Alchemist," I heard Scar mumble to himself. This felt the same as when I was picked up before. Did Scar... Did he _save_ me from Edward's wrath? What exactly did I get myself into? He talked a bit louder. "I will destroy all here who interfere with my duty!"

"Taking a hostage, huh?"

Scar jumped out of the way just as Armstrong punched the ground with his brass knuckles. "Reinforcements?"

"You're quite good to be able to dodge my fist," Armstrong said as he took his hand out from the now crumbled concrete. "You said you'd destroy everyone here, no? Then try defeating _me_ first! The Strong Arm Alchemist, Alex Louis Armstrong!"

"One after another..." Scar spoke, disregarding what the muscle man said. "This must be divine guidance, as well."

Armstrong stood his ground. "So you won't retreat, even with that hostage? Courage or cowardice, I'll show you—"

He picked up a big chunk of concrete and threw it straight up into the air.

"—a skill that has been passed down the Armstrong household for generations—Artistic Alchemy!"

The chunk came down and he hit it with his brass knuckles. The chunk transformed into a pointy spear as it flew towards Scar's leg. He jumped out of the way just as spikes popped up from the ground towards his feet. Scar used his right hand to destroy them.

" _Major! Please try not to destroy too much of the city!_ "

"What are you saying?" Armstrong looked at Havoc, who was leaning besides Edward. To my dismay, I was unable to shut my eyes before they caught the soul scarring sight of the now sparkly, fluxing, shirtless muscle man. "Destruction and creation are like two sides of the same coin! You destroy and create! This, in other words, is the law of the universe!"

"But why naked?" I listened to Hawkeye question out loud.

"That logic is crazy..." Havoc mumbled, and I strained my ears to hear it.

"But other alchemists won't find it crazy, though," Armstrong responded. "Right, Scar?" He punched the ground yet again, and sent big spikes and portions of the concrete Scar's way. He destroyed everything flying at him, and Armstrong rushed forward, switching between punching at Scar and attempting to grab me. I was in too much pain to reach a hand out to him, and I feared that I would fall off of the Ishvalan's back if I did so.

Scar ended up backing against a wall, thus pressing _me_ against the wall, and I groaned loudly and cursing under my breath. Armstrong was about to take a big swing at him when he almost got caught by Scar's hand and backed away.

I realized that this was the moment when Hawkeye would shoot at Scar's face and I let go of him, dropping limply to the ground. And it hurt. A _lot_. Falling onto wet concrete while already in pain wasn't fun. I had to swallow incoming bile that rose up my throat. Just like before, Hawkeye managed to graze Scar near his eyes, and his sunglasses fell.

"Brown skin and red eyes?" I couldn't see Armstrong, but I could tell he was shocked.

I sluggishly looked beyond Scar at the military. They were all pointing a gun at him, and more than a couple of pairs of eyes were staring at me worryingly.

"Looks like we're surrounded," Scar whispered.

Mustang stepped forward. "Hey now, don't move or we'll be forced to shoot. Let the hostage go."

The Ishvalan scoffed harshly. "You mean the boy that your Fullmetal Alchemist heavily injured and could have possibly killed?"

With that, he slammed his right hand onto the ground, and blue shots of electricity exploded everywhere as the ground crumbled under me. I felt myself being picked up bridal style, and the next thing I knew, the sky was gone from sight. Scar was running in the sewers, his footsteps echoing softly, and he was taking me with him.

I felt immensely tired, and I didn't have it in me to try and escape, so I let him carry me as I felt myself slipping more and more into unconsciousness.

* * *

I opened my eyes and tried to sit up as soon as I noticed that I certainly _wasn't_ in a hotel room, but I moaned and lied back down when I felt a sharp pang in my stomach.

"You're still injured," I heard someone say, and I froze.

I finally registered whose voice it was, and memories started flowing back. "...Scar?"

He grunted in what I assumed was confirmation. I relaxed slightly and looked to see that my head was lying on my bag. I felt around and sighed in relief when I felt the plastic of my flower crown and the cool metal of the gun on my fingertips.

"Are you able to stand?" Scar asked after a moment of dead air.

Despite my pain, I sat up and carefully stood before slinging the bag over my shoulder. "Yeah, I am."

"Good. Let's keep moving then."

We barely made it past half a minute of walking when I couldn't hold in my question anymore. "Why did you save me?"

"I was going after the Fullmetal, but then I saw that he looked ready to kill you."

"That doesn't answer my question," I told him. For some reason, I felt comfortable around Scar. "You could have just let him beat me up."

He paused. "...With your skin color, you reminded me of an Ishvalan, and I saved you without thinking."

"Oh." So the only thing that saved me was my skin. That was a scary thought. There was another pause where we just walked on in more silence.

"Are you Amestrian?"

I shook my head. "No, I was born in Creta. I came to this country about a week or so ago."

"Why were you with the Fullmetal?"

"We had made a deal. I'd share some of my information with them if they gave me a place to sleep and food to eat. But they didn't like how I was hiding some things from them, and Elric kicked me out."

He looked at me. "What kind of information?"

I gave a small smirk. "You're being a little nosey."

The Ishvalan grunted.

"Hey," I started, "is there any possibility that I'll be able to stick with you for a while? I don't really have anywhere else to go."

I could see the confusion form in his expression. "Even though you know who I am?"

I shrugged. "I knew who the Elrics were, and one of them threw a punch at me not too long ago, though I'm not sure I can really blame him."

He didn't say anything. Seconds turned to minutes. I was tempted to repeat my question before he finally said something. "Can you defend yourself?"

I frowned. "I'm a fast runner and dodger, and I have a gun on me, though I've never used it before."

He turned his head forward, no longer looking at me. "I couldn't care less, then."

I took that as a yes. "I'm Campbell, by the way."

"Campbell?" he repeated. "A strange name for a strange boy."

I twitched. "I'm not a boy."

Scar's eyes were back on me. "You're a girl?"

"No," I said bluntly.

He didn't stare for too long. "Strange indeed."

* * *

I'm not sure how long we'd been walking for. I'd taken to thinking about what do to next. I had honestly completely forgotten about what Scar does from here up until the Elrics come back into the picture, and that won't be for some time if I remembered correctly. I probably won't be able to get my hands on a stone for a while, so I'll have to just wait it out.

Man, I wish I had something else to do. Just walking and thinking was boring me to death.

With no warning, loud squeaks came from behind us, and I turned around to see a large group of _rats_ scurrying in our direction. I gasped and just stood there in fear as they passed right on by us. Oh my _goddess_ , I hate rats. I'm just glad that they didn't start running up my leg.

Hold on. Why were the rats running in the same direction all at once? Were they running away from something?

At that instant, I heard water splashing from behind, and my breath hitched when I saw _Gluttony_ coming towards us with impossible speed from the water, eyes glowing red and tongue sticking out, showing off his Ouroboros tattoo. I stepped back and scrambled to get my gun _without_ pulling everything else onto the dirty floor while Scar stepped forward and landed his right hand on Gluttony's head and used his alchemy. The homunculus paid no heed to this as he grabbed onto Scar's side, and Scar without haste cut off the homunculus's _entire arm_. It was difficult to keep myself from screaming.

Almost immediately after, I felt a new presence coming up quickly from behind, and saw Lust run up to Scar and pierce his right arm.

And then there was a huge explosion.

* * *

I woke with a start and tried to sit up, only once again to be met with pain.

"Hey, one of them is awake!"

I gasped and looked up. A little boy with brown skin, white hair, red eyes, and a red bandana on his head was looking down at me alongside an old man, who also looked Ishvalan. Next to me, Scar was lying on his back with a damp cloth on his forehead. His eyes were closed and his yellow jacket was nowhere in sight. I guess it got left behind.

"Where..." I started, when my head suddenly began to pound and I winced.

"You're in the slums on the outskirts of East City," the old man said. "Don't worry, we're not going to sell you two out or anything."

I tried to sit up again, this time successfully, and put a hand to my forehead, and I realized that other parts of my body besides my head and stomach were aching as well. I saw that my bag was leaning against the back wall of the _very_ small house, but looked nearly empty. "Where are my clothes?"

The boy spoke this time. "You two were floating around in the sewers covered in wounds, though your companion got the worse of it. The clothes in your bag were wet and dirty, so we washed them and hung them outside to dry."

"Oh, um, thanks," I said as I looked over at Scar. "Is he okay?"

The old man nodded. "He will be fine. His right shoulder took the most damage, but it should be completely healed in about a week's time."

I gave out a sigh of relief. "Well, is it okay for me to ask the names of my saviors?"

The little boy smiled and nodded. "My name's Piper, and my grandpa's name is Kozber. What about yours?"

"Campbell," I replied. "Thank you so much for taking us in and healing our wounds."

Kozber shook his head. "It's no trouble at all. You should get as much rest as you can to let your injuries finish up healing."

Even though I was wide awake now and didn't feel like I could go back to sleep, I complied and lied my head down once more.

* * *

I did actually end up falling asleep at some point, because next thing I knew, it was dark outside and Scar wasn't beside me anymore. I got up without much difficulty and walked outside passed the green curtains. The only light was given by the moon, illuminating my clothes and shoes and the multiple tents and wooden houses so small they could be storage sheds. I allowed myself to take a long, deep breath, taking in the smell of grass and—

"You're awake."

I jumped. I hadn't noticed that Scar was sitting outside in front of the house, not five feet away from me. Well, at least I know where he is now. Really, I should have been expecting to see him out here.

I sat next to him. When he didn't complain, I spoke up. "Is you shoulder okay?"

"It's fine."

I tried to keep the conversation going. "When are we leaving?"

"As soon as the holes in my shoulder close and I get information on the closest sinner deserving of God's punishment."

"Oh, um, okay," I said, a bit confused now on why exactly I chose to stick with this man. I couldn't think of a topic that didn't involve his past or his killings, so I stayed silent, trying to think of something safe to talk about.

"Why did you need to stay with the Fullmetal?"

"Huh?" I looked at him. Hadn't I already told him that I needed a place to stay and food to eat and— oh, wait. He's referring to why I needed a place to stay to begin with. I frowned. "My family isn't in the country. I came here without them." Family was the _last_ thing I wanted to talk about.

"...I see."

More dead air. I was starting to feel myself doze off after a while when something popped into my mind without warning.

Lust and Gluttony.

They saw me, and they know that I'm with Scar now. Does that mean anything? I don't think they'll be keeping too close of an eye on Scar unless he's around a sacrificial candidate, and I don't think they know too much about me either. I'm still not sure if I'm able to do alchemy without an array, but now probably wasn't the best time to check, especially with Scar around. I shuddered at the thought of being a candidate and having the homunculi on my back.

"Is it cold?"

I was jerked back into reality. "No, I was just thinking about something." For such concern to be reflected by a man whose life goal is to murder all State Alchemists was a bit mind boggling.

Wait. What if I told him about the homunculi? If I tell him that Envy was the one to kill that Ishvalan girl, there might be a possibility that he'll rethink this whole 'going-after-State-Alchemists' stuff. But would telling him about the homunculi change the story in any way? Scar's supposed to fight with the Elrics in the future, and if he quits trying to kill them, then that will never happen, and the whole plot could, or most likely _will_ be screwed sideways. To add to it, he _had_ eventually been told that it was Envy and Wrath who started the war, but I don't think that stopped his resentment.

Even as I considered about all of that, the idea of traveling with a murderer didn't sit well either. And it's possible for me to get two stones and get the hell out of here before anything too major or life threatening happens, right? It's just two stones.

I thought back on my rule. 'Don't make choices when you're emotional. If you have to make one, choose the "No" route. Don't say anything you might regret.' I certainly didn't feel emotional. I think that being uncomfortable with Scar being a serial killer is justifiable, and completely reasonable. Telling him might put me on more of a time crunch, but I really wanted to like Scar, and I wanted to find the two stones as quickly as possible anyway. Maybe this will give me an extra push on getting my hands on them.

And so I told him. I told him about Father, the homunculi, the government, and how King Bradley needed an excuse to shed blood in Ishval, so they had Envy disguise as a soldier and kill that girl to create havoc. I didn't really give any details, like Father's plan or how Father came to be, but I tried to give enough to let him now that I wasn't crazy, and to let him know that it wasn't the alchemists' fault.

When I was done, I gave him some time to let the new information sink in before I continued. "They're not the ones to blame. Killing them off, especially ones that weren't even a part of the war, seems a little unfair, doesn't it?"

"...Is this the information that you shared with the Elrics?"

I shook my head. "No. What I told them was unrelated."

"Where did you get this knowledge from?"

"I travel, talk to certain people and read certain books. But about hunting down State Alchemists...?"

He sighed. "You must realize that those State Alchemists killed off my people, and my family. They had a choice to refuse and leave the military, but they chose not to."

I frowned. "But what about those who weren't in Ishval?"

"They would have done the same thing."

Besides Edward, I couldn't argue with his point. Of course he wouldn't immediately drop everything and stop hating them for murdering his people. It was childish for me to think that would work.

Scar spoke. "So those two people in the sewers were homunculi?"

I nodded. "The woman was Lust, and the round man was Gluttony. But I don't think they really care too much about us, so you shouldn't be too worried about it."

"I see." I did my best to stifle a yawn, but it didn't really work out too well, because Scar ended up noticing anyways. "You should rest." I didn't argue, and I stood up to walk back inside.

So I was traveling with Scar now. I wonder when I'll get my first stone.

* * *

A/N: Don't fret, all of you Ed and Al lovers; we will see the Elric brothers again soon. I'm sorry that the chapter was so short. Busy week, ya' know?

Wow. I somehow got a lot more followers since last chapter. How weird.

So, did ya' like this chapter? How's the story for ya' so far? Criticism and compliments are always welcome in reviews. Catch any grammatical mistakes or things that don't make sense? Have any questions or concerns? Is there anything that you want to see or suggest? Send me a PM.

Beta readers. If y'all're (I love that word) interested, hit me up with a PM.

I forgot to respond to reviews last chapter, so...

 _BlueBookBadger_ : Thanks for sticking with the story! Haha, I didn't originally mean to make Cam so unstable when they become upset, but... they turned out to be really unstable anyway. They have a lot of violent thoughts when angry... Maybe because of all of the first-person shooter video games they played. Cam is definitely in the grey (gray?) area when it comes to their morals. I think the whole situation with their father and their homesickness is getting to them a little.

 _Darkrose Starline_ : Thanks for the review! I also have always wondered about if OCs in other stories always wore the same clothes and when they ever ate and all that jazz, so I made sure to clarify such things in this story. And I've also wondered how the OCs ended up having such a close bond with the Elrics as if they had been childhood friends so quickly into the story. I'm trying to stay conscious of the little things and be very careful not to end up in Mary-Sue territory. Should I ever stray, pull me back into place, will you? Wish me luck.

 _readwritelive14_ : Thank you so much for your review! It really helped me to figure out which direction to take, and actually opened up the thought process of having Campbell travel with Scar for a while, and I have some stuff planned now. I couldn't find a better time to have them end up with Scar than here, but they'll cross paths with the Elrics again at some point.

 **Also, allow me to clear something up real quick; this is not a self-insert. Campbell isn't my name, and although some of me definitely made its way into Campbell concerning their beliefs on the universe and their background (though I changed it up quite a bit), they're a completely different person. I live with my mother and brother, I'm female, I've never worn a flower crown in my life, I don't play soccer, I hate sweets, etc., etc. My reaction to things would have a lot more freezing and a lot less... violence, in mind. I'm very sensitive to blood and violence and torture if it's real. And I'm much more timid and untrusting and less outgoing. This is an original character. If you really wanted a self-insert, I would most likely have lost my marbles and/or died within the first week.**


	6. How to Find New Friends, Part II

Chapter 6: How to Find New Friends, Part II

* * *

I'm not usually one to complain. If I have to sleep outside in an alleyway for a night, or if someone eats all of the chocolate from my secret stash in my drawer (more likely than not Lauren), then I'll probably be upset, but I won't complain about it too much. What is to be or what is already done is something that cannot be changed, and if there's something that I can do to prevent it next time, that's all that matters.

That's what I'm usually like... but _this_...

Living in the slums wasn't without its faults. If I wanted to bathe, I'd have to either sit in a small wooden tub of water or walk a half mile to the river and get some leaves or a rag and just scrub. If I wanted to wash my clothes, I had to scrub that as well, and with all of the dirt and sweat they always gathered, it was _never_ easy. And if I wanted to use the _bathroom_ —well, it'd rather not think too much about it. I'm just glad that I have my toothbrush, toothpaste, and hairbrush with me at the very least.

It wasn't all bad, though. I got to meet all of the Ishvalan residents over the span of time, and being out in an open field was a nice change of scenery. It all reminded me of those places where everyone knew everyone and they all helped each other out like one big family.

Piper and Kozber checked up on our wounds at least once a day, sometimes twice or even three times a day with Scar's, and they fed us sufficiently and showed us around the slums. Despite their lectures against doing so, Scar had taken to exercising every day since he'd awoken, whether it be jogging, pushups, or curling his recently-made weights, which were just two big jagged rocks connected by a metal bar from who-knows-where. I didn't worry too much about it; I had even exercised with him whenever I could. I couldn't be out of shape for when things eventually roll downhill.

And so, this is how five days passed by, for the most part. Scar hadn't been able to get any information on any State Alchemists close to us, thank goddess. He started curling his weights again this morning, but my arms were still extremely sore from yesterday's clothes washing, so I opted out, taking to playing games with the kids outside.

We were just about to start a new game of hide and seek when in the corner of my eyes I saw Ishvalans walking up to a scrawny looking pale man with black hair and a strange moustache near our temporary house.

"Hey, what gives?"

"What's all of this about?"

"You had nowhere to go so we treated you like family and—"

" _Shut up!_ " the pale man screamed out, and I could have sworn I've heard that voice somewhere before. "Don't go comparing me with you Ishvalans! I'm going to rise again! I'm going to keep rising and rising and eventually get rid of that damned Edward Elric!"

I felt myself scowl heavily. _Now_ I remembered who that shabby lowlife was. I groaned as I realized that I'd have to travel with him for as long as I stayed with Scar. Joy.

"Cammy, what's wrong?"

"Huh?" I saw that the group of kids were looking at me with blatant concern. "Oh, uh, there's something happening over there, so I was just watching... Actually, how about you guys play a round of hide and seek without me? I'm going to go check this out."

I began walking over to the scene just as Scar exited the small house, and I stiffened as I noted the two familiar white muscular men standing just outside. "Seems I'll only bring trouble while I'm here," I could barely hear the Ishvalan man mutter.

One of the muscular men, the one that looked like he'd fit right in with a motorcycle gang with his shades and beard, reached out to place a hand on Scar's shoulder as he smirked. I immediately felt my stomach drop. "You're an obedient one, aren't—"

Before he could even lay a finger on him, Scar turned quickly and used his right hand to _deconstruct half of his arm_. The shades flew feet away and the man dropped to the ground, his bloodcurdling scream echoing throughout the slums as he cradled what was left of his limb. I stared in frozen horror and tried to keep my breathing under control, although I wasn't doing as well as I would've hoped.

The other man, the one that was actually dressed like the average person, got out of his shock a lot faster than I did and glared at Scar. "You bastard! What did you do?" He swung a fist at Scar's face, but Scar swiftly ducked and clamped his right hand around the man's head, covering his mouth. The man looked completely terrified, and I decided that now would be as good a time as any to shut my eyes, because I remembered what was to come next.

"I'll give you some time to pray to God," I heard Scar say.

"God?" the man had stammered. "You seriously think I believe—"

The sound of alchemy and some gut-wrenching screams later, I heard something— _someone_ —drop to the ground. I opened my eyes slowly to see exactly what I expected, along with a group of Ishvalans who had formed a circle around Scar and Yoki, terrified expressions on all of them. I don't think that I was doing much better than them, either.

Yoki was crying pathetically as Scar stalked in his direction. "Wait! Stay away! I was wrong, so please spare my life! I'll follow you forever!" He intertwined his fingers and bowed his head in a begging demeanor. I would have scoffed if the circumstances were different.

Scar stopped a foot away from the panicked man and anticlimactically crouched down to pick up the shades that flew from the motorcycle guy's face. And then he started walking right passed him, without even acknowledging his existence.

"Are you going?" Everyone but Scar simultaneously looked over to whom I assumed to be his master, a tall old man with a white moustache. "You'll sadden your brother."

Scar paused in his steps, and it was at this moment that I realized that he was _probably_ leaving. I did my best to keep my breakfast in as I scurried inside to grab my bag and double checked to make sure I wasn't leaving anything behind. When I came out, Yoki was already running after Scar, and I was once again stuck in a loop in my mind, wondering what in the hell I did to get stuck with a person who could murder just as easily as they could blink.

* * *

As the three of us trekked on the pathway, I couldn't help but silently yearn for something, _anything_ ,to block out Yoki's irritating voice. He's been going _on_ and _on_ about his sob story at Youswell and how horrible Edward was and he wouldn't _shut up about it_.

"—and the people loved me! I was so devoted to their happiness and wellbeing! But then that demonic Edward Elric deceived me with a trade; he wanted ownership of the mine in exchange for what looked to be a big heap of gold! But when the gold turned to coal and I rightly came over to discuss the matter, the heartless creature had already given the ownership papers to some riff raff who doesn't know the first thing about running a mine! It was all just a nefarious scheme to overthrow me and—"

"Um, Yoki?"

He looked over to me with tears in his eyes. "Do you understand my suffering and wish to follow me so that I can achieve my dreams and exact my revenge?"

"No, I was going to ask you to stop talking."

" _What?_ " he yelled out. "Do you not understand what—?"

"Oh, I _perfectly_ understand," I told him. "It's just that it's been about _half an hour_ since you've started babbling, and I'd be very thankful if you'd be quiet for a few minutes so that the headache you've given me can calm down a bit."

" _What did you say, you—?_ "

I brought out the pistol from the top of my bag and cocked it. He stopped almost immediately, and I couldn't help but smile as I put the gun back. "All I'm asking is for you to take a five minute breather from your rant."

Yoki scoffed and crossed him arms. "It wasn't a _rant._ I was telling you both about my deepest troubles, and about how wicked Edward Elric is! Now that I think about it..." He turned to Scar. "Master, you kill State Alchemists, right? Do you think you can help me get back at him?"

Scar didn't say anything in response, and I didn't blame him for not wanting to willingly engage in a conversation with Yoki, so I answered on his behalf. "Scar _did_ try to kill him before, so if he ever does get to Elric again, it will in no way be for you."

"I didn't ask _you_ , now did I, _boy_?"

I twitched. "My goddess, you're annoying. We get it, life is hard. Can you be quiet?"

He huffed loudly. "What, are you saying that _your_ life has been more rigorous than mine?"

I had to think about it for a moment. "Probably?"

Yoki seemed to be extremely skeptical. "Did _you_ have everything taken away from you in a flash? Did _you_ go around homeless, worrying about where you'd end up next, or if you'd even make it to see the next day?"

"Um, actually—"

"I don't _think_ so," he continued. "My life has been _ruined_ by Edward Elric, and I'll rise and rise until I am able to wipe that mocking smirk off his face if it's the last thing I'll do!"

I sighed dramatically. So much for my headache. "Hey, Scar?"

He glanced over at me. "Hm?"

"Are we traveling to any particular place?"

"Central."

I nodded and closed my eyes. By some miracle, Yoki was finally being silent for once, so I decided to take this rare moment to just blindly walk for a while, listening to the sounds and taking in the smells of the open field.

* * *

I... Um, I eventually decided to stop walking with my eyes closed, because every time I attempted to walk straight, I always ended up leaning astray to the left or right, and at one time I tripped over a rock and hit my head, which was now bleeding. I'd estimate that it's been about two or three hours since we started walking, and Yoki wasn't looking too well. He was hunched over, sweating bullets and breathing heavily.

"We have to stop for a break soon," he whined loudly. "My legs are burning in hell."

I frowned. "Once you sit down, you won't want to get back up. Try to bear with it for a bit longer. I'm sure we're going to be coming across a sufficient hideout soon."

He groaned rather obnoxiously, but didn't say anything more.

It was then that we spotted two figures moving up the path towards us; a little old lady with a kid by her side. Scar pulled his white hood up, and I did my best to wipe the blood off of my face with my hand.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," I said. "Where are you heading to?"

The kid—a little boy who couldn't be a day older than eight years old—grinned widely. "We're gonna go to the store to buy some meds!"

Before I could say any more, Scar spoke up. "Do you know of any State Alchemists close by?"

"State Alchemists?" the old woman repeated slowly with her croaky voice. "State Alchemists, State Alchemists..."

I didn't like where this was going. "Er, ma'am, it's okay if you don't—"

"Ah!" she abruptly exclaimed. "I remember! There was this man with a wooden leg and tuxedo a bit younger than me—he was quite the charmer, really—and we were having a nice conversation when he mentioned that he was something like that."

The Ishvalan remained stern. "Do you remember his State Alchemist title and where you met him?"

You've got to be joking me. Come on, please don't remember, please don't remembergf!

"His title?" she repeated. "Title, title... Oh, I remember! I think it was something like the Steel—... The Stone? No, what was it?"

"Oh, oh, oh, I know, I know! It's the Silver Alchemist! Right, Nana?"

The woman glanced down at her grandchild and smiled. "Yes, and I believe we met him around Lengar if I'm remembering right."

I would have cursed under my breath were it not for a minor being not a meter away from me, so I took to glaring intensely at his back.

Scar gave a short nod and continued walking. I turned to the little kid. "Did you see any abandoned homes or buildings on your way here?"

He looked deep in thought for a few seconds before suddenly nodding. "Yeah! We passed by this really wrecked up home a while ago and I went in it and there nothing in it and it was really cool!"

"Thanks." I exchanged some quick pleasantries with the two before I rushing to catch up with Scar and matching pace by his side. I really wanted to say something in hope of convincing him to not go out and kill anyone, but I knew that anything I could possibly say will go in one ear and out the other.

* * *

Not too long after, we'd found a nice little broken down house with broken down walls and a wooden roof that only covered half of the building. I was surprised when Yoki didn't complain about where we were settling, but I'm assuming that he's either lived in worse conditions or is just too exhausted to whine about it. Either or, I wouldn't feel bad for him in the slightest.

I took notice of how Scar didn't sit down with us. "What's wrong?"

"I'm heading out. Did you want to come watch?"

I stared. "...Watch what?"

"I'm going to go pass God's judgement on the Silver Alchemist. Did you wish to observe?"

"Oh, I, um...," I stumbled. Is this about how I told him that I wanted to get stronger while at the slums? "Thanks, really, but no thanks. I don't think that I can aim to kill anyone anytime soon, nor would I like to see someone die tonight."

He nodded in what I took as understanding before reaching into his pocket and pulling nm out a wad of cash before tossing it to me. "If you get hungry, go out."

I was going to give him my thanks, but he was already going. Exhaustion hit me like a truck, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

* * *

"Wake up."

...

"Hey, wake up!"

...Maybe if I stay silent, it'll go away.

"Wake up, you stupid boy!"

I groaned, but didn't move. "Shu' up."

"Who are you telling to _shut up,_ you dumb rat? I'm telling you to wake up!"

Realizing that he wasn't going to let me be, I reluctantly sat up and, as my eyes slowly started to adjust, I noticed that Yoki was glaring. "Wha' do ya' wan'?" I slurred.

"I'm hungry, and I need you to escort me and pay for my food."

I yawned, gradually turning more alert, and saw that it was nearly pitch black in the night. "Ya' woke me up from my deep sleep 'cause you're hungry and can't wait 'til mornin'?"

"And you're _not_ hungry?" he yelled back. "Just do as you're told and escort me!"

Now that he mentioned it, I _did_ feel really hungry, but I'd never tell him that. "Fine. Give me a minute to finish waking, you giant baby."

I stood up, stretched, grabbed the money, grabbed my gun, put on a jacket to cover my head wound, and we started making our way not three minutes after. Yoki complained for most of our journey about how he was starving to death and I did my best _not_ to spit on his face. It had become quite chilly since I went to sleep, and I silently cursed at the shorts I was wearing, and cursed at myself for only having purchased one pair of long pants and six pairs of shorts.

A few minutes after we made our way to the city, I spotted a nice looking café that looked like it might sell sandwiches and sweets, so I turned to inform Yoki about my find.

But he wasn't there.

Goddess _damn_ that stupid son of a—! Where the hell could he have gone off to? And _why_ in the hell would he leave my side?

I frantically retraced my steps and looked at every building, every alley, every park that I'd crossed by the see if he might have stopped there for whatever reason, because no matter how much I hated the guy, I couldn't mess up the storyline by having his dumb butt suddenly out of the picture. The last thing I wanted was some butterfly effect things to start going on and coming to bite me.

It was then that I heard something rustle in the alleyway I was passing by, and turned to see Yoki's figure crouched down, facing away from me. I stomped up to him.

"What the _hell?_ You can't just stop any time you want without—"

He turned to glare at me. "Shut up and just look before you go patronizing me!"

"Look at _what_?" He moved out of the way, and my eyes immediately went to the form of a little girl with six long braids and weird clothing and—

My breath hitched. Mei Chang. It was Mei Chang who was lying there unconscious in the alley. Her panda was lying next to her as well, also in deep slumber.

"Damn," I muttered to no one. I kneeled down by her side and shook her shoulder lightly. When that didn't work, I shook it with more force, and I could see that she was starting to stir. "Hey, Ma—" I paused. "Um, ma'am, you've got to wake up." Look at me, McSmooth over here, almost spilling a name that I shouldn't know. Luckily, with Yoki's lack of intelligence and Mei's drowsiness, neither of them seemed to have noticed my slip up.

The girl slowly opened her eyes, and she looked around.

"Who are you?"

* * *

"Who the hell is that?"

After we went to the café and got some food, Yoki and I brought Mei along back to the den, along with Xiao-Mei. While we were eating, Yoki had been going on about how Scar and I were his servants, to which I responded with a simple eye roll and nothing more. Mei was really bubbly, talking about how she came over to Amestris for the secret to immortality as a gift from the Chang clan and how thankful she was to us. She said that she didn't have a place to stay for the night, so Yoki and I took her back with us to the den.

Of course, when Scar came back to the hideout in the late morning, he wasn't too amused to see the plus one.

"Ah, Master, you're back!" Yoki exclaimed as he started walking up to the Ishvalan.

He didn't seem to share his enthusiasm. "I'm asking who the hell that is!"

Yoki jumped back fearfully. I was about to answer, but Mei beat me to the punch. She was sitting on her knees in the middle of the room.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Mei Chang! When I was unconscious on the roadside, I was saved by Sir Yoki, your master, and one of the other servants."

"My master?" Scar mumbled, and he sent a questioning look Yoki's way, but Yoki turned his head away guiltily, so he turned to me.

"Ah, well, when we found Mei she told us that she didn't have a place to go, so we brought her back here."

Scar nodded and looked at Mei. "You're feeling better now, right? Then get out of here."

Ouch. Always the sympathetic one, Scar is. He walked right past Mei and sat down against a wall. It was then that I noticed the obvious tear on the side of his pants leg and the terrible scratch that followed, and how Scar was clenching his teeth. Mei seemed to have noticed as well, because she quickly stood up and kneeled down at his side.

"What do you want?"

The girl ignored his weariness as she took out a stick of chalk out of her purple bag and began drawing a pattern onto the floor under his wound. "Please, allow me to seal your wound." Yoki walked up to observe what was going on, and so did I.

Mei had drawn a star within a circle, and stuck down five kunai at each tip of the star. It looked so simple, and yet I knew that it could do a lot of healing and damage.

When she placed her hands down on the drawing, the drawing lit up blue, and the sounds of alchemy echoed. I could see Scar's wound close up, and he looked surprised.

Yoki, however, was even more confused. "What? It _healed?_ "

Mei turned to him and smiled. "It's called Alkahestry, from the nation of Xing."

The Ishvalan started examining where his injury used to be absentmindedly. "Xing?"

Yoki suddenly gasped. "Oh, yeah! According to her, she crossed the great desert of the east all by herself! How stupid can you get?"

I frowned, and Mei stood up to face him. "I didn't cross it by myself! I had a companion with me!"

"Companion?" Yoki questioned annoyingly, before he caught sight of the small panda on her shoulder. "Oh, you mean that little thing?"

"Yes! Her name is Xiao-Mei!" Mei suddenly stiffened and suddenly turned 180 to see Scar's right arm reaching out to her panda. He froze, but Mei went to get a closer look. "This is... alkahestry, is it not? A technique comprised of understanding and utilizing the veins of the dragon, power that runs through the earth..." She looked up at Scar. "This tattoo is used to draw power from our alkahestry."

He slowly let his arm fall. "My older brother studied both Eastern and Western Alchemy... This tattoo is the outcome of his research."

Mei grinned. "Oh my! Your brother must be a really talented individual!" When Scar's expression turned sterner than before, Mei realized that she must have hit a sore subject.

"I have no idea what you two are talking about," Yoki said, breaking the silence, "but since your wounds are all healed up, we can go back to Central now, right?"

"If that's the case," Mei said, walking towards her stuff on the floor, "I'll get ready right away!"

Yoki scowled. "Hey! We told you to get out of here!"

The two of them got into an argument, ending with a piercing scream, Yoki dancing around with a tiny panda's teeth in his finger, and Mei just... dancing. She seemed flustered; I think it's because she's thinking about Elric. I took off my jacket and was about to change into new clothes when Mei ran up to me.

"Your head... How did you get such an injury?"

I smiled nervously. "Ah, well, you know... Dangerous situations."

"Let me seal it for you."

With a slight frown, I kneeled down as she created another purification circle and got to it. It felt pretty weird, but it was only mildly uncomfortable. It was really cool, actually, how people in this universe can heal wounds with just a pattern and their hands, while doctors at home have to use so many machines and tools to—...

...

...—to heal injuries.

To heal head injuries.

Maybe even brain injuries.

 _Dad._

"Hey, Mei..."

She looked at me. "Yeah?"

I swallowed. "Is it possible... for alkahestry to heal brain injuries?"

"Brain injuries?" she repeated. "Do you mean like brain damage?"

I nodded.

"Well...," she started, "yes, but it's a really advanced skill and it takes a lot of time and energy to—"

"Can you teach me?" I cringed at how desperate I sounded to my own ears.

The slight hint of a frown. "Why?"

"I..." I bit my lip. "I need to heal someone, because they're going to die soon if I don't."

"Can't you get an alkahestrist or an alchemist to help?"

"...It's complicated. I just need to learn how to heal brain damage, and this might be the only way I can do it." The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a _necessity._ What happens if— _when,_ I remind myself—I get back home and I have a philosopher's stone? How am I going to heal Dad? I don't know the first thing about the human brain, so who's to say that my inexperience isn't going to make the damage worse or, goddess forbid, _kill_ him?

That's not a risk that I'm willing to take, not when Dad's life might be on the line. I don't know if I'll ever actually need this knowledge, but in the scenario that I will, I won't be lost.

Mei gave me a serious look that just looked wrong on a kid like her. "I may not be the right person to go to for that kind of stuff, and it takes most people years to learn something so advanced."

"I don't care. Please, teach me as much as you can."

After a bit of staring and contemplating, she let out a small sigh. "Alright, I'll do my best to teach you what I can."

I gave her a life-squeezing hug. "Oh my goddess, thank you so much!" I'm possibly one small step closer to home, one small step closer to saving him.

* * *

A/N: So. I meant to finish and upload this chapter yesterday, but my mother woke me up at 8 am screaming, "Why aren't you getting ready yet?" because she neglected to tell me that we were going to a birthday party, and we stayed there all day. And _then_ when I woke up today, I had a whole lot of large red bumps on my arms, probably mosquito bites, and they were super itchy and super distracting. I took some medicine known to make people feel drowsy, and I cooked my family some breakfast, and I fell asleep.

I'm sorry if this chapter sucks. I wanted to get this chapter out as soon as possible after I promised myself I'd get it out yesterday.

Anyway, chapters will take a bit more time to make, with school and chores and all, but I'll be trying my best to stick with the two-week time limit.

How was the chapter? How's the story so far? Criticism and compliments are always welcome in reviews. Questions, comments, concerns, suggestions? See any Mary-Sue symptoms, grammatical errors, contradictions or things that don't make sense? Send me a PM.

Beta-readers. You magnificent beings. If you're interested, send me a PM and we can work out the details.

 _BlueBookBadger_ : I realized I wrote " _BlueBookDragon_ " in the last chapter and fixed it. I'm sorry; it was 11pm and I was sleep deprived. Forgive me. Anyway, thanks! You weren't overthinking it at all. It definitely is dark, but it's also understandable. Cam is willing to do anything to go home and save her father. And it'll definitely be a trip with Cam, Scar, Yoki, and now Mei Chang together.

 _Hachinonana_ : Yes, Campbell finished the series and knows exactly how philosopher's stones are made, but you have to understand that those stones are the only ticket home for them, and the only way to save their father from dying. They were taken away from their family and friends and home and desperately wish to go home. With these conditions, they have little problem with using the stones.

 _Panwei_ : Thanks for reviewing! I tend to write in my free-time anyway, and I read a whole lot, so my writing style has sort of morphed into what it is now because of that. And story-wise, I'm kind of making it up as I go with vague general ideas of what happens at certain points. I'm glad that you find it to be to your liking.


	7. How to Go After a State Alchemist

Chapter 7: How to Go After a State Alchemist

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Wow. I am so terribly sorry. It's been months, hasn't it? Between projects and exams ( **groans loudly** ), surgeries ( **cries** ), my uncle's death, the USA presidential election ( **shudders** ) and bed bug paranoia ( **shudders violently** ), I've had no time or energy to continue. I apologize. Bed bugs are still in the apartment and we're planning on moving into a house in a few weeks, so the next few updates will more likely than not be very spaced out. I hope that you guys can forgive me, though. This story is not canceled and, as you can see, I'm not dead yet. This chapter is about half the amount of a regular chapter and probably is riddled with a lot of errors (like all of my chapters are, heheh), just because I didn't want to make you all wait any longer. I'll probably revise it when I have time.

* * *

Now leaning over the side of a carriage, heaving up my guts, I was starting to think that maybe this whole idea to have Mei teach me alkahestry wasn't my best.

Sure, it seemed like a flawless idea at first. When Scar and Yoki stole a horse carriage and some necessities from town and they all had set off for Central, Mei had decided to begin training right away through a boring lecture. I'm not really the type to be able to hear things once and remember it, and so I had opted to take notes in the back of my notebook, but that didn't make things any less confusing. She also talked about how meditating a certain way will help me unlock chi, which turned out to be a good way to pass time, calm myself, and get rid of headaches brought by trying to understand alkahestry.

That was basically how my first day was spent. Half of the rest of the week was spent meditating and trying (but failing) to draw a perfect circle with chalk. ( _How to people manage to do this?_ Shouldn't it be physically _impossible_ to do without some assistance?) But that wasn't even the worst of it, because the _other_ half of the rest of the week was spent _sparring._ I had asked why I needed to learn how to fight if I just wanted to learn how to heal, and she had brought up some good points on how, since I'll be traveling with them, it'll be useful to know. Sure, I had been on the soccer team at school so I wasn't really out of shape, but that in no way could have ever prepared me for something like hand-to-hand combat with a kid half my size and a panda bear beanie baby.

It wouldn't be the first time that I had thrown up during or after a match, regretfully. Between limited food and water, getting my ass handed to me whenever the horses had to take a break and becoming immensely frustrated when I think I've finally drawn a perfect circle but it turns out to be a very, _very_ subtle oval, my week has been beyond tiring. Even so, I decided that it was all going to be worth it when I'm finally able to do alkahestry, even if right now it all seemed like hoodoo mojo.

When we got close enough to Central, we abandoned the carriage and walked the rest of the way. All I _really_ wanted right now was a nice, long, hot, perfectly pressured shower and a _real_ bathroom. Camping had _never_ been that bad back home... Home...

What are Lauren and Riley up to right now? As time even passed by over there? Maybe they're both in their 80s, and life has just moved on with me. How's Dad doing? Hopefully, I will make it back home before it is too late, most preferably with a philosopher's stone in hand. That stone is my best shot of getting back home to a happy ending...

That train of thought was (thankfully) interrupted when I suddenly realized that we were all walking into a motel. Letting myself smile from ear to ear, I assumed that Scar and Yoki had also robbed whoever owned the carriage (though that probably wasn't too much of a good thing—I was just overjoyed to see a proper bed and bathroom). When we walked into their two-bedroom motel space, I immediately began searching for rodents and bed bugs as Scar talked.

"I will be out for the night. Stay here until I get back."

Everyone nodded, all knowing that the man probably wasn't going out to go frolic in the daisies. When the door shut, I let Mei take a shower first, and Yoki jumped onto one of the beds with his back up.

" _Finally,_ I get to sleep on a bed!"

I momentarily paused my search to glare at Yoki. "What makes you think you're sleeping in a bed tonight?"

He suddenly jerked up and glared right back. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"It means that there are only two beds, and Mei, Shao and I are going to be the ones sleeping on them tonight. You can get a bed tomorrow."

His face was slowly starting to change color. "What makes you think that _you're_ the boss of _me?_ "

"I'm just saying that we've been sparring all week, I'm sore all over, and I think we deserve the beds first. Tonight, you can sleep on the couch, and to make things fair, tomorrow night you can take my bed and _I'll_ sleep on the couch."

It was hopeful wishing that something like logic would get through his thick skull. "Sure, but what if we're not here tomorrow? I've been keeping the horses on track all week, so _I'm_ the one that deserves a bed the most!"

I stomped my foot in anger. "Listen here, you twat! I've been training all _week_ with these two! If you want to spar both of them when Mei's out the shower to take my bed, fine by me, but then _you'll_ be sore all over and _I_ won't be checking your bed for your long-lost rat family living under the mattress!"

His face went straight from the shades of Clifford the Big Red Dog to Snow White in three seconds. "F-fine! But you're checking the couch, too!"

Feeling my body relax, I nodded. "Sure."

After Mei got out the shower, I walked in (the pressure was too high, but besides that it was basically heaven), put on my pajamas, put my dirty clothes in my bag and walked out with it to find a laundry mat. Washing my clothes in rivers, streams, and lakes didn't really cut it for me.

I spend the rest of the night searching every inch of the room, talking with Mei, and writing down more notes before sleep became too tempting to ignore.

* * *

" _—news, breaking news in Central—"_

I sat up, simultaneously nursing a headache, wondering what on Earth woke me up when I finally noticed the radio on the nightstand in between the two beds. Mei was already up and listening in while Yoki was just beginning to stir, too.

" _It seems Scar has appeared in Central once again. Three casualties, all of whom are State Alchemists. Several others wounded. According to witnesses, he has a large cross-shaped scar on his forehead. An Ishvalan with tattoos all over his right arm—_ "

The door slammed open, revealing none other than the main man himself.

...I'm not one-hundred percent sure why, but it suddenly struck me one again that the guy in front of me, stained with blood that didn't seem to be his, was a murderer, and possibly a little psychotic. When did I become numb to this? It was a scary thought, that I had either separated the murderer and the man standing in the room or that I've become completely unbothered by the fact that his goal in life is to kill as many State Alchemists as he can. Does this make me a felon, semi-willingly sticking with a killer and not turning him in?

Maybe.

Shaking the thought out of my head, I checked over the few injuries Scar had with Mei, although I couldn't do anything but watch her heal them after that. He was supposed to rest after his wounds were cared for, but the radio had continued.

" _In other news, a State Alchemist—_ " Scar jolted up from the bed " _—has been doing charitable work by repairing the damaged property of citizens for free in Rejo—_ "

Apparently, he'd head all the information he needed, because he slid off the bed and began walking back to the door, Mei right on his trail.

"Wait, you need to rest! And your wounds—"

"Stay here," was all he said before he closed the door, once again leaving us.

So Elric has successfully lured out Scar. I let out a small sigh and lightly shook my head. "Why is every guy I meet in this place so damn stubborn?"

Mei turned towards me and Yoki, a determined look on her face. "I think we should follow him to make sure he stays safe."

Not really wanting to bring a gun to a magic fight but also not wanting to mess up the plot, I shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Let's go before we lose him and—"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Yoki screamed. "He'll be perfectly fine on his own! He didn't need our help with those other three State Alchemists, so why would he now?"

I couldn't hold back the urge to roll my eyes and cross my arms. "He's barely gotten any sleep, so I'm sure he's running low on energy. If you want to stay here, that's fine, but we're heading out. Capiche?"

He looked like he wanted to argue so badly, but kept it in, angrily muttering to himself as we quickly gathered what we thought we may need (although my flower crown probably wasn't what many would consider to be a necessity) and headed out.

As much as I wanted to hide from the brothers, considering how our last exchange wasn't exactly what one may consider a heart-warming Hallmark moment, I knew that it was probably inevitable and that I should maybe start thinking of mentally preparing myself for the yelling and screaming that would definitely come.

In the meantime, following Scar without him noticing was difficult, to say the least. Yoki kept sneezing or making comments at the most inconvenient time, but we haven't been caught yet. We finally got to Rejo, and watching Scar and the Elrics fight was somewhat mindboggling. Even though I've been in this crazy country for, what, a few months now maybe, it was like I was watching a live action movie, but way more terrifying. Later on, Winry came into the picture (I'd never actually seen her before this moment, had I?) and the fight moved to some sort of huge train loading station.

It was just the Elrics and Scar for a while until Gluttony appeared (goddess, I wish I could get the image of a body exploding and reforming out my head). Ling then showed up and tied Gluttony so that he was immobile.

And then Scar got shot in the leg.

I forgot that part.

Why did I forget that part?

Hawkeye came driving in, gun smoking, and drove Ling and Gluttony away from the scene.

And now Scar is leaning against the train cargo that Mei, Yoki and I were hiding behind, naturally in pain, and what does Edward do while he's down?

He punches his face, _obviously._

Now, I in no way blame him for doing so, but the man's _down._ He's tired and he has a bullet in his leg.

Despite this, Scar starts swinging back. Edward jumps back to Alphonse to get ready for some sort of super combo alchemy attack, but in a split second Mei and Shao are on the scene, kicking the brothers down before jumping to Scar's side.

"Are you alright, Mister Servant?" Mei asked him before pointing accusingly to the eldest brother without a reply. "How dare you do something like this to the servant of my savior, Yoki, you pipsqueak?"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!" As expected, Edward suddenly got his energy back by being called small, and I couldn't help but chuckle and roll my eyes as his antics.

But then suddenly, all eyes were on me, and I knew that I couldn't retreat behind the cargo fast enough, so I stayed there. It didn't take long for the brothers to recognize me.

Maybe it was the flower crown that sold me out.

Damn.

I braced myself for the rant that was to come from them, but Edward's expression held a lot less anger than I was expecting and more... shock.

"You're not..." He looked _really_ confused. "Are you _Campbell?_ "

I frowned and stepped out fully from behind the cargo. This wasn't at all what I was expecting. "Um, yeah. Why do you look like I just set your pet rabbit on fire?"

There was a short period of tense silence before Alphonse spoke up. "We... We thought you had died, back there."

...Oh. _Oh._

"Wait, _what?_ " Are they serious? "You told me to run off with my, if I remember correctly, 'homicidal friend,' and so that's what I did to survive."

Alphonse took a step forward and extended an arm out. "Are you okay? Is isn't safe to be with Scar. Come with us."

I saw Edward's confused expression turn to surprise as he started furiously whispering to his brother. Meanwhile, anger was boiling in me.

"Come with _you?_ " I spat. "Your brother practically _killed_ me because I was trying to keep you guys safe." No, I wasn't. I can't remember why I didn't tell you guys. "I'm sorry if traveling with him to reach my goals may make me _somewhat_ uncomfortable."

Edward gave me an urgent look. "About that, there's something we need to tell you about the phil—"

"I'm sorry to break up the reunion," Mei interrupted, "but there are soldiers coming. We need to retreat, _now_." She shot ten kunai, making two circles on the train's cargo behind the Elrics. The soldiers moved in.

Alphonse took another step forward. "We're sorry! Come with us, he's not safe!"

Mei created a perfect circle with a five-pointed star inside and a kunai at each point into the dirt.

I felt a little guilty, but not guilty enough. "I can't. I have things to finish."

Mei kneeled down and shot her alkahestry into the drawing. Blue electricity flowed from the drawing to the two circles on the cargo and exploded them, creating a black smoke screen. Everyone was coughing, including me, and _man_ is whatever that stuff is stinging my throat and eyes.

I felt a little hand grab mine and Mei's voice whispering, "Grab Yoki. I'll lead you guys out of here."

I nodded, only afterwards forgetting that she couldn't see me, before straining myself to whisper. "Hey, Yoki, where are you? Take my hand so that we can get out of here." I waved my hand around before it connected with something warm and solid. I grabbed onto what was probably his wrist and tugged on Mei's hand.

Ignoring Edward's shouts for Scar and me, we made it to a mostly empty storage shed, away from the smoke but still in the train loading station. Yoki went out on watch while I watched Mei use alkahestry to take the bullet out and close up the hole. Scar was being eerily silent through it all, occasionally staring at his tattooed arm...

Mei finished wrapping the bandage around his leg. "That should have stopped the bleeding."

Scar snapped out of whatever trance he was in. "Thanks."

Just then, footprints came running in our direction and I reached for my gun when it turned out to be Yoki. "Master! The military police are just around the corner! We should run!"

He offered to help Scar up, which Scar obviously declined, and led him to the outside ("Master, hurry, hurry!") as Mei seemed to be looking around for something...

"What's wrong?" I asked her. "Lose a kunai?"

She stopped and looked up at me, teary eyed. "I... I don't know where Shao Mei is!"

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry the chapter was so fast-paced. The next update should be a better-written and normal-sized chapter.


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